Chiang Rai

A couple of months back, Clare and I ducked up north for a long weekend to check out Chiang Rai province.

Chiang Rai would have to be one of my favourite destinations in Thailand for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the greenery was a welcome change from the Bangkok polution and concrete jungle - it was great to just look out the car window and see nothing but bush or rice paddies all the way to the horizon.

The diversity of the landscape kept Clare and I guessing - with the mountainous region in the west and flat rice fields in the east. Chiang Rai reminded me somewhat of the Northern rivers region of NSW, with the long lowland landscapes and hilly regions. Less hippies though.

I also loved the individual little villages and genuine culture - too often have I seen Thai's cash in on their country's cultural heritage...a bit like Rolf Harris selling albums to the poms! Clare and I felt lucky to see people working in the fields in their colourful traditional clothing, and the Chinese influence of migrant communities in the north...it all seemed such a world away from the streets of Patong, Pattaya and Sukhumvit.

The area also has a rich history, being at the crossroads of trans-Asian trade for centuries. Most recently, the opium trade brought black prosperity to the people of the region, however this seems to have been thwarted, at least in Thailand, by concerted efforts by the Thai government, Royal family and international pressure.

So we hired a car, covering about 500km over three days of winding roads and pot holes like doorways to the depths of hell. We dodged herds of cattle, dudes in ramshackle tractors, random chickens crossing the road (there's got to be a joke there somewhere...) and of course full families on motorbikes.

We visited the Chinese migrant town of Mae Salong; Doi Tung, the mountaintop place of royal residence and religious focus, including the royal botanic gardens; the many small rural towns dotted around the provincial countryside; a random guy's farm, after getting a little sidetracked; and a national park just north of Chiang Rai city. There's a lot to be said as well for the many hours we spent just cruising around.

Somewhere in the Phu Chi Fa mountain range - the landscapes here were terrific, when Clare and I were driving through, wispy clouds were rising through the range as the morning woke up. What was previously opium country, fruit, coffee and macadamia nuts are now grown in the area. Note the small rain shelter here used by workers during heavy storms.

Another shot of some of the mountain ranges Clare and I drove through. Pretty sweet.

Closeup shot of one of the flowers at the Mae Fah Luang botanic gardens on Doi Tung. The gardens were terrifically landscaped - rainforest, roses, water-flora, an orchid farm and a cracking little cafe among other things. Mum, you would have absolutely loved the rose garden - was about the size of a football field.

Clare smelling the roses.

It rained a bit when we visited the province, and I loved it.

Why bother with an umbrella when you can just stick a plastic bag on your head?

Driving around some of the lowlands. In the background you can see rice paddies stretching out into the mountains. Whilst this particular photo doesn't really do it justice, the colour of the paddies was breathtaking, reminscent of Young in canola season.

Casualty.

Clare and I with the Jazz in front of a great statue of Buddha. This photo was taken up near the junction of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand - AKA 'Golden Triangle'.

Looking down the Mekong toward Laos.

Navigating in Thai script was a growth experience.

Rice paddy and rain shelter.

German backpacker?? Ya - das vatervall iss goot.

The Khun Kon waterfall in one of Chiang Rai's national parks - it was a really great little trek up to see this one, Clare loved it. As we got higher in elevation the flora changed...there were also heaps of small insects and butterflies, indicating the area is still in pretty good nick.

Click the images for a higher-res, more detailed look at some of the landscapes.

My birthday cake

Clare took me out for a delicious meal tonight at an Australian-owned wine bar / restaurant for my birthday. On the menu was a blood orange cocktail, a wonderful glass of Sicilian Syrah, white wine poached chicken and avocado, pork fillet with stewed spiced apple and port-soaked cranberries, and as pictured - pavlova with banana and passionfruit!

Amazing!!!

Happy birthday to me!

My friend Bonnie sent this YouTube video through to me for my our birthday - classic!

Just another Saturday night in the soi

Our new apartment is in a soi (street) which also houses Wat Phra Si Maha Umathewi, built in the 1860s by Tamil immigrants and one of Bangkok's most revered Hindu temples. The Central Asian population in my area is the mainstay of the temple community, while others come from all over Bangkok to worship.

Last night was pretty standard for the soi, with thousands of people converging on the temple to celebrate Diwali.

A cloud of incense and wafts of rosewater filled the air, while a percussion band kept the vibe going with their tribal beats. The flowers and offerings were pretty cool, with all manner of garlands, Bualuang (lotus), coconuts, bananas, food and even what looked to be a glass of coke (your kind of deity Angus). Firecrackers were going off until about 1am.

I was up at 7am this morning to go for a run with a mate and amazingly the soi was spotless. There always seems to be something to celebrate at temple, so by now the cleanup goes like clockwork!

The bachelor

So Clare’s been away now for about two weeks, acting as Maid of Honour at her friend Chrissie’s wedding (last Saturday); meeting the newest edition to the O’Connor clan, young Will; hanging out with her family in Tregeagle and Byron; and now traipsing around the South Australian countryside with the wonderful Mariani family, sampling the best wine the region has to offer.

She’s back next Wednesday evening.

So what’s life been like without her around? Let’s do a quick reflection exercise:

• Pizza delivered for dinner. Three times.
• Post-work DVD delight in the fine works of Seagal, Willis and Stallone.
• Underwear everywhere.
• Toilet seat fixed in the upright position.
• No early-morning teaching-hour wakeups.
• No express shuttles late on a Saturday night from the grog-house to the dog-house.

Of course, not all is rosy, and our new place can be pretty empty without an extra body floating around. Looking forward to when she gets home…although I might have a bit of work ahead of me this weekend to get everything back in shape!!

The security of tomorrow's Thailand

I attended a small Australian Chamber of Commerce luncheon today about the ‘certainty and uncertainty of Thai politics’, presented by the Editor-in-Chief of the Bangkok Post/Post Today - what’s for certain is that I am even more confused!

I sat next to Natchaon, a young Thai woman who is currently completing her second masters degree. Khun Natchaon is studying consumer behaviour specifically relating to home and personal security (random!). Some of her interim findings were interesting from a sociological perspective…

Over this way ‘luck’ and ‘karma’ provide ways for Thais to order and explain life’s events. If, for instance, you are hit by a motorbike on your way to work, a traditional Thai would explain it as an imbalance of bad karma – doing too many bad things, or not enough of the good. To counter this imbalance, many Thais ‘make merit’ by giving to the poor, helping monks etc. It’s all part of the social fabric over here.

Despite this, Khun Natchaon found respondents to have differing attitudes to personal and home security, largely based along generational lines.

Those up to the age of 30 tended to be more inclined to purchase personal security products. Those aged over 30 were not so inclined to purchase products like home CCTV or electronic access, as they believe an instance of home robbery (‘bad luck’) is an uncontrollable occurrence directly resulting from their own karma inaction, thus a bad way to spend their money.

Why is this interesting?

It shows that for good or bad, Thailand’s next generation (middle class and up) are changing the way Thai’s frame their lives. The next generation are becoming more proactive in taking control of their life, which will no doubt flow into issues of politics and democracy, consumerism, the relevance of Buddhism, the family unit, socialism vs capitalism, and the monarchy.

Thailand will be very different in twenty years time…

In Samui

This is a quick pic taken last month in Samui the day after the adventure race.

As recovery, I decided to go on a snorkeling tour of some of the outlying islands. A lovely day, the swim was good, but the array of sea life where we went had nothing on Koh Chang in April this year.

You may also notice I got a wee bit burnt the day before! More on the adventure race later...

Busy busy busy...

Apologies, haven't posted up photos from numerous trips away, including Chiang Rai, Singapore and Phuket...

Work has been pretty hectic at the moment, will try to find some time to write and upload photos soon!!!

0909090909

9 is an auspicious number here in Thailand.

So today - 09/09/09 - the Thais are going absolutely mental.

At 0909hrs this morning, an eruption of nationalism spewed out in front of my work, where bank employees gathered to sing two songs in honour of the King (you can see his picture in the background).

Standing there listening to the songs, I thought of a couple of things:

1. Would people do this for KRudd or the Queen?
2. Days like this are an absolute boon for the bloke who manufactures paper flags.
3. What is the King doing now?
4. I wonder if Clare was right when she said last night that a lot of pregnant women would be induced today?
5. Why does Clare keep bringing up so much talk about babies?

That's not a supermarket...THIS is a supermarket!

The mother of all supermarkets, Makro is probably best described as two parts aircraft hanger, one part disneyland and one part Coles.

I reckon they'd need a staff shuttle bus any time a checkout chick needed a price check...

Bangkok by night

Just finished up at a work dinner at The Peninsula hotel, a flash place on the Chao Phraya river.

Great nosh, smashed about at thousand lamb chops.

Anyway, the above pic is of me on the wharf waiting for the boat. In the immediate background is one of the Lanna style boats (with lights), and far behind are the lights of State Tower and the Dome.

‘O’ for Awesome

I’ve just started boxing training once a week as part of the lead-up to the adventure race, with a good mate of mine training myself and a bunch of other mates at a little Muay Thai boxing gym, roughly 20 minutes from where Clare and I live.

I’ve really enjoyed learning the basic technique, not so much the 5:20am starts, and have been feeling good after some pretty tough sessions. This week I jumped into the ring for my first ever (thankfully short!) sparring session, up against a mate who used to be a British Navy Champion boxer. Needless to say, my mate Steely can hit.

I don’t plan on becoming a professional boxer. Why? Check out the clip below featuring ex-NZ champion David Tua, who became a NZ national heavyweight champion at age 15 and a bronze medalist at the Barcelona Olympics.

Oresome.

Sausage roll madness

With just 23 days to go until the Koh Samui Adventure Race, it’s articles like these that just send my fat-boy instincts well off the radar.

The SMH published an article this week in Good Living on where to get the best sausage rolls.

With recipes such as traditional pork and beef (with mace and nutmeg), lamb and pine-nut (with parsley, lemon and mustard), pork (with fennel and grated carrot), and lamb and harissa (with almonds, currants and poppy seeds), it’s one of the few times I’m glad I’m so far away from home! It would be carnage.

So where can you find the best sausage rolls around Sydney (according to Good Living)?

• Berry Sourdough Bakery and Café, Berry
• Summer Hill Village Patisserie, Summer Hill
• Bourke Street Bakery, Marrickville

Any other suggestions? What about the bakery on the way back up to Coffs?

Meils – please do an intelligence mission for me on the Marrickville one and report back…if it’s any good, I’m thinking we should go on an excursion there next time I’m home…

How my family celebrates birthdays

It was my Dad’s birthday today. I spoke with him and Mum over skype and chatted to Mum about what she was preparing for his birthday dinner…very much indicative of how my family celebrates!!

Sad I have to miss yet another family event, but happy knowing they’re celebrating in style!!

ENTRÉE

Carpaccio

The beef is seared until crusty but still rare inside, dressed with extra virgin olive oil, horseradish cream and lemon juice, and strewn with capers and rocket leaves.

Ravioli

Roasted pumpkin, fetta and sultana with a sage beurre noisette.

å

MAIN

Chicken

Roasted tenderloin served with steamed seasonal vegetables and a mustard sauce.

å

DESSERT

Something sweet

Selection of mixed berries with a white chocolate sauce.

å

WINE

2008 Giesen Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

2000 Mount Pleasant Rosehill Shiraz

Wallabies support Sydney Convicts

The Wallabies have shown their heads are in the right place in making positive steps toward eliminating homophobia in sport. Captain Stirling Mortlock, Al Baxter, David Pocock and Stephen Moore got together and were photographed with a number of provocative placards. Check out the flickr slideshow here.

Some of the slogans included:

• “All rugby players are boofheads? All gay men are weaklings? Reject stereotypes, accept people.”
• “It’s not who you are, it’s how you play the game.”
• “We support diversity in sport.”
• “Everyone deserves a sporting chance. Stand up against homophobia.”

The rugby league Footy Show, known for its homoerotic skits and homophobic fervour, spat out a hideous PR exercise that somewhat backfired a few weeks ago. The producers got two of the Sydney Convicts on the show to talk about the club and gay men in sport, but the awkwardness shown by the host Fatty Vautin was unmistakable, and no doubt the show will continue to propagate the same stereotypes in the future. I really like the footy show - there’s some really smart football minds on there - but the segments featuring such mindless humour has often got my blood boiling.

Let’s hope this terrific partnership between the Wallabies and Sydney Convicts continues, and closets in dressing rooms across the country can open up.

One Year On: Beijing 2008 Olympics

Just over one year since the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games flew out of the starting blocks, I found these statistics on the magnitude of the opening ceremony on a Chinese business website:

“In the past two years, I dared not slack at my job. I have never led such a huge team, with so many performers, staff and volunteers," said Zhang Yimou, Artistic Director of the Opening Ceremony. “There is one simple sentence from the bottom of my heart, ‘I hope you enjoy yourselves tonight.’”

The 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony officially “combined the ancient elements of Chinese culture with modern forms of performance.”

Fireworks erupted from 287 points on top of the Bird's Nest National Stadium, 12 positions across the Olympic Green and 29 locations across the city. A total of 11,456 fireworks were set off from atop the Bird's Nest National Stadium, and another 8,428 in central areas of Beijing.

110 minutes of music was specially created by 18 composers, with 2,583 special lights, 15,153 sets of costumes in 47 styles, 516 sound amplifiers and 160km of power cables used for the show.

Some 4.5 million visitors have visited the Bird's Nest National Stadium since it opened to the public in September 2008, with the adjacent Water Cube National Aquatics Centre having received 3.8 million people, according to the Beijing Tourism Board.

Head in the clouds

It's 6.30am and for the first time in quite a while, I've woken up to the morning reverie of wild birds.

What makes it even more significant is that the closest Clare and I get to nature these days in Bangkok is in caring for our little struggler of a baby frangipani tree.

We flew up yesterday morning to Chiang Rai, in the mountainous north of Thailand, near the borders of Myanmar and Laos. We decided to brave the Thai roads and hire a little 4-door Honda Jazz - an absolute winner of an idea from Clare - spending most of yesterday driving along the back roads, checking out (modernised) tribal villages, cloud-swept mountain landscapes, postcard-perfect rice paddies and enjoying the cool air!

Until now, I had thought the authenticity of Thailand's cultural and ethnic heritage had been sold out to opportunistic travel operators. Not so in the north, with a modern tribal co-op system still working among the villages, embracing the advent of the new world, while seemingly keeping many of the traditions and cultural markers of their forepeople. The opium trade has challenged this in the past (and still), however I understand there to have been a significant shift away from the golden days of the Golden Triangle (more about this later).

We stayed last night on Doi Tung (Mt Tung), atop which the Queen Mother used to live. There's also a botanic garden here, which we hope to be able to visit today. Pictured above is the view we've just woken up to - so lucky!

For Karla - the government has worked to replace opium with coffee bean production as a means of resident income in the area, meaning some delicious fresh coffee available everywhere! You'd love it!!

(Apologies for the grainy mobile photo...will blog some decent ones when I get back!)

Congratulations Penny & Josh!

News just in that Penny & Josh are the proud parents of a baby boy!!!

A foodie’s rant

Gloriously titled, the article ’10 things I hate about chew’ runs through a number of Simon Thomsen’s pet hates when dining out. A wonderfully insightful piece on the state of dining in Australia - the bloke can write too!

Meils – take notice!

Some of the funnier pieces included:

3. Seasoning. Also known as The Pepper Grinder. A growing number of restaurants don't offer any salt and pepper on the table. That's fine - the chef should season, but bringing a pepper grinder the size of a nuclear warhead to the table and asking if we want some before we've tasted the food is inane. I ask for it to be left on the table and promise not to steal it.

6. Overblown menu descriptions. Sometimes it sounds like the ingredients are having sex in a Barbara Cartland novel.

What’s in a name?

I work with a person here at the bank whose name is suffixed by ‘Na Ayuthaya’.

I asked one of my Thai colleagues what ‘Na Ayuthaya’ meant, suspecting it had something to do with social standing – apparently it indicates a person’s familial lineage, which is usually traced back to the royal family. There are several types of these ‘extra’ names given to those fortunately born in the right place at the right time, or who have married someone in ‘the family’.

I was trying to figure a Western cultural equivalent (such exercises help make sense of this country). All I could think of was an OBE, MBE etc.

My colleague wisely said that therein lies a wonderful illustration of the fundamental differences between the two cultures. In a general sense, where social status (think jobs, opportunity) is delivered via one’s blood lines in Eastern cultures, in Western cultures, status is earned and generally related to positions attained or money earned.

Mulesing

Interesting segment from the ABC's Bush Telegraph on mulesing from last Friday...

Listen in here.

I think I need to Take 5

On page 69 of this week’s Take 5 magazine, a social journal of high repute, you will find a picture of Clare, a surfboard and a mysterious-looking orb (I’ve previously blogged the photo).

My mate Millgate submitted the picture on my behalf into the journal’s resident psychic Jenny Smedley, asking her what the orb in the photo means for us both.

As you can see in photo to the right, it sounds like there’s a baby on the way…

Panda PR

It's panda-monium in Northern Thailand at the moment.

The Chiang Mai Zoo has painted their elephants to look like pandas in a PR attempt to help remind Thais of the plight of the national symbol. Not sure if this is brilliant, weird, animal cruelty or all of the above.

As background, the Thai public went absolutely nuts after a rare baby panda was born in Thailand in late May this year. Since then, there's been a panda frenzy amongst the Thai public with panda pens, panda screensavers, panda mobile covers, a panda song and other assorted panda accessories on sale left right and centre!

Golf's got it right

From last weekend's Fitzfiles:

I WANT to pen a paean on golf. In what other sport can you get anything remotely close to the scene we witnessed at the British Open last weekend? I mean, a legend of the game such as Tom Watson - whose last major win was 26 years ago! - taking on the world's best, including not only Tiger Woods, but a 17-year-old from Japan, a 16-year-old from Italy, other players of all ages from as far afield as Colombia, Argentina, Denmark, Sweden, South Africa, Spain and Fiji … and getting within a single shot of winning the whole tournament! Not one of them threw a tantrum; not one raised hell in local nightclubs before or after their rounds, all behaved impeccably. The sporting theatre of the whole thing was spectacular, and there were no corporate billboards flashing, no logos emblazoned on the greens, no nuttin'. In all the codes in all the world, golf is the big-time sport that has got it absolutely right, and Watson's achievement last weekend served to highlight it as never before.

Face

Face is a funny thing.

Back home, the word face commonly means the outer-front-side of someone’s head, some of which are quite nice to look at. In Asia, it is a misty mystifying social veil of beauty, frustration and humour.

Beauty in the sense that the concept of ‘face’ and ‘saving face’ is so culturally intricate, thus difficult to understand and at times exclusive. You just can't help but admire the social pillar.

Frustration in the sense that its unspoken language can be excruciating at times to navigate. Why hasn’t he returned my emails? Why do they have such dark tinted windows on their BMW? Why say the bus would take 4hrs, when it always takes 16?

Humour, well sometimes you just need to sit back and smile. For example, I’ve been meeting weekly about a forward sponsorship strategy with a whole bunch of the bank’s VPs and execs. Every week, this important-looking dude walks in, is wai’d profusely by those in attendance, sits in an remote part of the boardroom, doesn’t say anything, then leaves after 5-10 minutes.

Reason? All for face I reckon. It’s important to show respect in meetings by turning up in person (as opposed to just sending apologies). It’s also not necessary to contribute to a meeting if you’re not an important cog, and it’s cool to send a minion there on your behalf to report back to you. It's also cool to just leave after 5 minutes without contributing.

With all due reflection, every country and sub-culture has its own language of face. At home, you never visit someone for a meal empty-handed. Or you always remember to return a shout at the pub.

It’s quite an introspective human behavior really, fascinatingly manifested differently across every culture. The world is quite charming, isn’t it?

It would be interesting to know what variations of ‘face’ you see where you live, or what circles you hang in?? Rural, city, European, beach, work, gay, sports clubs, shopping, politics…