Well, at least I have a home

Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Bangkok, Krung Thep, Thailand
I'm back on the road in Thailand, this time in a bit more civilized place called Bangkok.
I arrived 9 days ago and was met at the airport by an emissary of the school I teach at, which is a small private school in a very wealthy ex-pat community.


I went to a hotel in Nonthaburi, a suburb of Bangkok, which was an hour away from the airport! Try to make polite conversation with a Thai after a 24 hour airline jaunt and an hour van ride! The hotel was lovely and I wound up staying there for a week. I was really getting nervous about finding a place to live. Watcharee, the lady who picked me up at the airport, showed me two places that were something less than my hotel room - a tiny, dark room with a bed and a tiny toilet. I'm not one to blanch at the quality of my digs - remember the place in Laos where I slept with my clothes and the lights on? or the cement cell in Kenya that flooded in the rain? - but I couldn't envision myself staying there for a year without some serious medication.

Then someone suggested I check out David; well, not David, but David's house. He was a former teacher at my school. I did and the house was lovely and big - three bedrooms, wide open first floor, kitchen, small yard, etc. But do I want to be worrying about mowing lawns at this stage of my life? Plus the added lack of security with a house, plus David offered to pay $100/month if he could leave his vast collection of furniture , computers, whatever in the house. It was a big no from minute one.

At this point, I sense that the school had given up on trying to find me a place and privately labeled me a (as Thais say) "fusspot."

So I started searching the Internet and wrote down tons of info, my dear friend Jim made some phone calls and took me to see some places, I made some appointments with Realtors, and so on. Talking to Realtors on the phone is fun - they can't understand me and I understand them less. So we agree to text which eases some of the communication gap and we basically say, "meet me Sunday at 3 pm. Hand the phone to the driver when you get in the taxi. In other words, I don't have a clue where I'm going, I just put my fate in their hands.

The first place Pom shows me is no less than a penthouse. 20th floor, 2 huge bedrooms, 2 big baths, full (American sized) kitchen, parquetry floors, living room,flat screen TV, washing machine, dining area replete with table, 4 high backed chairs and a tablecloth and a killer view overlooking Bangkok and the Chao Praya river for miles. All for (at the high end of my budget) - 12,000 Baht or about $360 US.   So what's not to like, you ask? Well, apparently some rich Chinese investor thought that when China took over Hong Kong, all the well heeled Hong Kongians would retreat to Bangkok.   So he built maybe 8 huge skyscraper condos in Muang Thong Thani, right near the Impact Arena. But nobody came and the economy went bust.
The buildings are all but deserted. Those who took an investment leap and bought in can't give their condos away. For literally blocks, the first floors of all these massive buildings are deserted and boarded up.    You enter through the parking garage, up a dirty elevator and down an hall that hasn't seen a mop in decades. Security and maintenance are almost nonexistent. I walked into the building and my feet were saying, "No, no , no," with every step.    Then to top it off, Pom turns her head to talk to me while driving away, assuring me that it's very safe, and she ran over a wild dog. I took that as a sign.

The next condo was not deserted, but a rat hole. You had to take an elevator up to the 7th floor, then walk up a flight of garbage strewn stairs to the 8th, I have no idea why. The door was preceded by a locked folding accordion door made of iron bars. That should have said it all. I won't go into the interior as I wasn't really too interested at this point.   The apartment next door had a blue plastic raincoat draped over their iron bars, I don't know why.

So my last appointment was with Rung, and I understood her less than any of them. I was to meet her at the Urbana Condos at 3 pm. I can't find an address for the Urbana and I can't even find the street she mentions on the map. So it's probably so far out it isn't worth seeing, I think.

But lo and behold, it's closer to my school than my hotel, and it's new and I love it! At 8,000B,($240) it's higher than usual for a condo but by American standards, cheaper than renting a POD. There's 24 hour security, card scan to get into the inner sanctum, and of course, door locks.   It's a big room with living area (walls are baby poop green with a persimmon red sofa), flat screen TV (5 local channels all in Thai), queen sized bed, an adorable alcove kitchen with a sink , frig, and 2 burners (you don't usually get any stoves here as nobody cooks.) The kitchen is set off with a frosted glass door so as to conserve air con. There's a desk , end tables, coffee table, but no dining area. The bathroom is new and beautiful and there's a walk-in closet that you enter from the bathroom (?) So I guess if you have digestive troubles, you may have to re-launder all your clothes.

I needed 24,000 Baht (3 months) rent up front, but no problem, I brought a couple of thousand dollars in traveler's checks with me for this purpose. I knew that stores won't usually cash them but I was thrown a curve to find out that the banks won't cash them either. (So why?...) I have credit cards, ATM cards, personal checks, Travelers checks, American money - and still no way to pay the rent.   And oh, by the way, did I mention that the ATM will only let you take out 5000 B ($150) a day? To which I pay a $8+ fee for every withdrawal. What to do?   Jim Westgate to the rescue. God Bless this man. He actually loaned me the money until I could accumulate enough ATM withdrawals to pay him back.

I've been to the local Carrefour (French owned Walmart-type store) twice and bought all the requisite household items. Forgot toilet paper but I improvised. I worried how to carry all this stuff home, but it couldn't have been easier. You roll your cart out the door (after having a 9 Baht ice-cream cone at McDonalds - 27 cents; 36 cents if you want a dip top) and you are on an elevated sidewalk. The taxis are all backed up to the side walk and they pop open the trunk, load up your goodies, and away you go.   When they get to the condo , both the taxi driver and the security guard help me carry my bags to the elevator and I'm home free. BTW, you can also buy fried tuna pie at Mc Donalds as well as pinapple and corn pie and a Milky Tea Float.

The taxi drivers never know the way to anywhere , they don't understand me, many may possibly be illiterate, Jim says many can't read a map, but somehow I manage. Voravit, the sweetest Thai on earth, makes me maps to everywhere and writes out the directions in Thai and still they look at me quizzically and ask me questions in Thai. When we reach an impasse, I dial Voravit or Watcharee (sometimes at 630 am) and after LONG telephone discussions they get me to my destination.

I have learned to say Centran Plaza - they pronounce final L's like an N - and Lotus (store) they don't call it by its full name, Tesco Lotus; to make sure they turn the meter on, and to tell them to use the back entrance to the school's development (they go for the front entrance which is an extra 20 baht away.)
I have perfected my hand signals for right, left, go straight , and U turn, and even "middle lane" - that one took some thought. I have affected a dramatic "no, no, no"  complete with tongue clicking when they try to deviate from the prescribed route.

All in all, things are going well. The kids are very rich snobby brats and the job entails some major ass kissing, which you know is not my forte. Some nights I think I may be fired for not being sufficiently ingratiating, but even I have my limits.  

We played a game in our first math class, you write down 5 numbers that describe yourself and the class has to guess why.   One boy writes 11, and they guess right away that that is his age; 1999 is easy, they correctly guess it's the year he was born;  but the number 3 stumps the class until they conclude that that must be how many drivers he has.   Yeah.







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Comments

Patty Dunn
2010-08-25

Well, you've arrived, found livivg space, and started your job! Amazing beginnings, Sharon. Love love love your blog...it is so descriptive that I can picture it all! That Jim is a godsend...thank goodness you have him! Hope you're very priveleged students appreciate your humor & creativity . You'll be the best thing that ever happened to them!!
Stay happy and safe.
-p

olsommer
2010-08-26

Thanks, Pat. Your encouragement is always appreciated.

Lisa LoBasso
2010-09-01

Sharon-
I am always so intrigued by your writings! It amazes me as to how you can just "get comfortable" in foreign countries! Keep writing!
Lisa

2025-02-11

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