it's official.

It has been confirmed by everyone and their mother (though Thai Airways refuses to give out a phone number...) I am going to be leaving from the new airport...Suvarnbhumi Airport (pronounced: "sua-na-poom") on Friday evening. It opened this morning, and so far it seems to be going off without hiccup (they are obviously waiting for dme to have things start going wrong."

"Thousands of departing and arriving passengers christened Bangkok's new international airport as it officially opened Thursday with all commercial airlines transferring operations to the sleek new hub.

Flights stopped landing at the old, overcrowded Don Muang airport on Wednesday night. The full transfer of passenger flights from Don Muang to the airy, expansive Suvarnabhumi Airport was completed at 3 a.m. Thursday, more than four decades after the project was originally conceived in 1960.

Built on an area known as "Cobra Swamp," Suvarnabhumi was crippled by everything from corruption scandals and a deadly fire to the military coup that ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Sept. 19.

Thaksin, who turned up the pressure to complete the airport - built in four and a half years, all during Thaksin's reign - heralded Suvarnabhumi as one of his administration's crowning achievements.

Surprisingly, the military takeover did not delay or significantly impact the airport's opening.
The military assigned 800 troops to the airport for 90 days to support the transfer and help with troubleshooting. Several army canine units were deployed at the passenger terminal to inspect suspicious packages.
Suvarnabhumi -a name conferred by the Thai king pronounced "sue-wanna-poom," which means "Golden Land" - is about 20 miles east of Bangkok in a 6 million-square-foot, H-shaped building.

The new airport is capable of handling 76 flights per hour and 45 million passengers per year.
Suvarnabhumi is constructed of steel, concrete and lots of glass that lets in natural light while keeping out the tropical heat. The oval-shaped concourse corridors are roofed by glass and white fabric panels.

A 17-mile rail link under construction will connect the airport with mass transit trains in central Bangkok and is scheduled for completion in November 2007." -Washington Post



Few comments. Build on Cobra Swamp? Are you kidding me?

The article says it is 20 miles west of the city. Normally, this cwould mean about 30 minutes travel time. Though this is quite deceiving, as it is really over and hour and a half out of the city, making the new traffic problems soar. I can't wait.

A 17 mile link? Good planning. Airport opens in September, link built in November. That will really help me. Thanks.

That's about it. Exams are done, packing started, reports written, and I have to go buy some more dollars, get my naisl and har done one last time for dirt cheap, and maybe even a massage.
In 24 hours, I will be on my way!

my hedgehog

So I have adopted a pet. I am in love.

When I was a kid my father's best friend was a hedgehog breeder. I used to beg and plead and ask and want to sneak a little spiky guy into my life. Much to my dismay, I was never allowed to have one. (Something about responsibility, blah blah...) After checking out my brother's girlfriend's 'my space' last night, I noticed she had adopted a pet llama. Now, I knew I didn't want a llama, as I housesit one summer and took care of two ungrateful stinky rotten llamas, who I hated and resented and wished would run away. But I went to check out the website where she adopted her pet, and I found that they not only had hedgehogs, but also had hedgehogs of any colour of the rainbow! And so I am now the proud owner of a pink hedgehog, who sleeps on my sidebar, and you can feed strawberries to anytime you want.

Check out the website, as you can adopt anything you want! (Even a panda!)

A few words...

I am leaving in six days.

I don't know how many bags I can take on my flight from New York to Vermont.

I don't know how old my little brother is anymore.

But reflecting on his birthday, now I remember.

I don't know what airport I am leaving from.

I bought my dollars before this coup came about and the baht fell. GO ME!

That's about it. Sunday tomorrow, time to teach my last weekend class and sleep and think about packing and evacuating the cockroaches from my suitcases in my storage room. I see a job for Rin coming on!

these are serious times...

As everything in Thailand, this coup also comes with surprises. I came into work today to find a fellow teacher had taken literally hundreds of photos of tanks, officers, etc. And what could we see? Well...people taking pictures of themselves infront of the tanks, putting flowers on them, making the army guys smile. And so, I guess, as with everything, no need to worry.

Sitting at my desk with some iced tea on a rainy Sunday in September...I only have one thing on my mind.

I am going home in two weeks.

I have so much work to do; I have been working straight for two weeks with only breaks to sleep. It seems like it is never going to end, but working hard has put me ahead for the end of term. Exams written, reports printed and prepared, books checked and I feel like I can slowly start to relax.

I sit and ponder what I can do next. Do more work for school? Do the dishes in the sink from the muffins I just made? Go and change the channel on the tv, though Rin is snoring away clutching the remote...Give Sophie a bath, go clean out the car, wash my sheets, iron, think about packing? None of the above.

I daily flick through the calendar my mother has made for me scheduling time when I am home, letting me know who is going to be where, and how I will get to see everyone. I would be lost without her. I can't wait to see my mother, father and brothers. It has been almost two years since I saw them, and I can count the times we have talked on the phone. Email makes people lazy, and cheap. I can't wait to have simple conversations face to face with the people I love.

Raining, about 100 degrees. I can do with a little fresh Vermont air. I honestly, can hardly wait.

Though I still don't know which airport I leaving from.)

Dear Anonymous.

"Anonymous said...
I can't help but wonder... why are you still there and how much longer are you planning to stay? I love Thailand (I lived there for 2.5 years) but i wonder what kind of future you can really build there as a foreign woman. Just curious. By the way, congrats on finding a good Thai man. "

Thank you for your comment (though I thought I had my settings so anonymous comments weren't allowed, as I find them insanely irritating...).

To answer your question...I am staying here until I don't want to be here anymore. There are parts of me that wish I wasn't here anymore. There are parts of me that want to stay here forever, which I probably would if my family wasn't so far away. There are parts of me that want to be angry at you for asking. There are parts of me that make me sad because I don't know the answer.

But to answer, I don't know. I don't know anything. I don't know about my future, I don't know if I have a future, and the way I see the seasons changing so fast here, who knows if we have a certain future. Things change so fast; fortune turns to misfortune, and the other way around. I am only doing what I feel is right for now. Maybe in a month after I dip my toe in the colder seas I will have a different opinion, but for now, I am content with not knowing. With the only certaintly in the fact that I know what colour uniform I have to wear every day. And that, is all I need right now.

and we have more excitement!

Things never seem to get dull around here.

Everyone who knows anything about Thailand knows that this country survives on one thing...Corruption. Generally viewed as a bad thing, as they seem to only want money which is easy to come by for them. The police in Thailand have a pretty easy plan on making money. Stop 'Mr.X' on his motorbike. Show him how tight your uniform is, leaving your attention to wander to his oversized gun in its holster pointing somewhere in your direction...Sure. When he asks for three hundred baht for no reason, 'Mr. X' gives it to him. A small fee to get away without having that gun stare at him for a long time. But when you get 300 baht from 300 people in a night, things start to add up.

Often police and other authorities can be paid off, which can be advantageous. If you need to get some paperwork done but you are missing a signature, or missing a certain form, these things can generally be looked over for a small fee of about a thousand baht (though sometimes upwards of 10,000 baht, depending on the situation.) These things go without saying.

I was applying for a work permit while I was working in the South, my degree hadn't arrived yet...No worries. They made one for me. No questions asked. Cost: one round of golf between my boss and a public prosecutor on the company's dollar. (Including whisky.)

My friend got married a few weeks ago and I was going to translate the documents city hall for them. Though when we got there the man said it had to be done by a Thai national. With a wink and a nod he let us go through with the proceedings, understanding he would get something out of it. Cost: one thousand baht and a free hour of staring at my boyfriend whom I think he was quite interested in.

An essential part of life in Thailand if you plan on staying here for a long time is to get to know one of these guys. Make a Thai policeman your friend.

Lucky for Rin and I, about the same time we moved to Bangkok, so did his uncle, who happens to be the highest ranking police man in the Sukhumvit area. (One of the busiest areas for police men in Bangkok.) His number in on speed-dial, and you can assume, when we go out, everything is free, and more than likely, illegal.

Example: About four months ago we went to see him at his apartment. He invited us to go out to dinner and then to walk around Suan Lum Night Bazaar to be followed by a night on the town. Dinner at the somtam restaurant: free. Cost to the police?: Look the other way if the restaurant stays open until three in the morning instead of closing at the legal time of one. Night on the town: well. This needs some explaining. Possibly my only real encounter with the sex industry in Thailand, he took us to his part of town where he works, and we went to the famous Nana Plaza, full of drunken tourists and beautiful Isarn girls putting it all out there for 40 bucks a night. We went into a 'fine establishment,' were given front row seating, a free bottle of Black Label, and were entertained by the girls in white bikinis taking showers an showering each other on stage. When it was time to go, I asked for the bill. Rin's uncle, slightly embarrassed. He leaned over to me and said 'I don't actually pay, for anything.' Cost to the bar: 'Please don't come and raid us, as prostitution is not exactly legal, but hey, we're giving these girls jobs, right?' And I went home that night with a full wallet and a cringing heart. Perhaps I had picked the wrong profession.

But this has all come back to haunt me this past weekend as the police came and raided our school on Friday. They checked visas, passports and workpermits. For those of us all in order, we were fine. But for the seven out of twenty teachers ho are waiting on documents or don't have degrees (three people...Not quite legal in Thailand...But they are very good teachers), well, they are out of a job in a month. This happens to include the one new teacher I have just hired who has a six month pregnant wife and is actually a pretty good teacher. And so, in a month, when I am planning on going home and taking time off work, and his wife is seven months pregnant, we will both be shit out of luck. The police won't take a bribe this time, for some reason. My teacher doesn't have a degree, which we knew when we hired him, but we never thought it would come to this. Without a degree you cannot apply for a work permit in Thailand. So, him losing his job could also cost me mine, as it is my responsibility to find a new teacher, at the same time that I am writing exams and planning my first trip home in two years, and if worse comes to worse and they say I need to fill in, then I guess I will be out of work too. (Though not pregnant.)

Oh the joys of Thailand.