My week in Bangkok: Wednesday

Evening views from our roof

My Wednesday’s, like Monday’s have 3 classes; 7-9am, 1-2.40pm and 4.20-6pm.

After my first class Celine and I hit the gym in our apartment. It is small and often something is broken but it does the job. I have lost over 5kg since arriving in Bangkok. I am not sure if it is the heat, the gym, the lack of beer or a combination of all three. I wanted to put on weight so I guess I am failing that one. Before hitting the treadmill we play ping pong and Celine is seriously good. Years or rubbish competition from my brothers has been replaced by Celine’s wicked forehand and an ever improving backhand. She is constantly apologising for beating me.

The gym

Where my battles are lost


The gym is usually followed by a short stint at the pool which is my favourite part of the apartment block. On the roof the pool deck gives great views of the city. It is the perfect chill out spot, peaceful and relaxing. Great for reading or preparing lessons.

Our pool

Celine has been cooking a bunch of great Asian dishes lately, prepared from her recently purchased cookbook, so after the pool she headed off to Carrefour to do the weekly shopping. I prepared an early lunch, a stir-fry, and somehow managed to get chili in my eye. Seriously, it is not the smartest thing to do. After lunch, we had mango and coconut rice (made by Celine), a popular choice in Thailand, which was superb.

Coconut rice and mango. Delicious!

After lunch I took a motorbike taxi and train to my next class. My eye was suffering the after effects of the chili and decided to twitch uncontrollably as I tried to teach my student different way to apologise in English. In the end I had to apologize to her; continually rubbing my eye must have looked a tad weird. Now she knows how to apologise to someone if she ever gets chili in her eye. A beneficial lesson I thought.

After my last class I darted across to a nearby cinema to watch a film with Celine at the Emporium. Wednesday, we thought, was a cheap cinema night but not, it seems, at the Emporium. Next week we will head to MBK where you can catch a movie for 80 baht.

We took the 20 minute walk home, cruising up Soi 22 before stopping at a bar for a drink. We chatted about the movie, talked about the next day’s lessons and watched the traffic pass by. Across from us Thai girls, dressed in not much, huddled outside their respective Japanese clubs waiting for customers. I don’t really know what happens behind those darkened windows but it doesn’t look that innocent. We headed home soon after to catch some of the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

My week in Bangkok: Tuesday

Lunch in Siam

Tuesday is an early start. I need a motorbike, train and bus to get to my class but the traffic is only starting to properly wake up so door to door it takes an hour. With my afternoon classes cancelled Celine and I had some rare free time together in the day.

We met in Siam which can be described as shopping central in Bangkok with some massive shopping centers such as Paragon and MBK. Siam also has a number of offices and small boutique shops which seem to entertain the younger crowd. The restaurants are quite hip and the food delicious. For that reason we started with lunch. Every time we have eaten in Siam we have been very impressed with the food. Wander around Siam Square and you will find a bunch of places in no time.

After lunch we walked up to Pantip Plaza, which has everything electrical, buying Photoshop for a massive $4. We cruised around the busy streets, browsing clothes stands, eating ice cream and dodging traffic. Every so often you get a wiff of a “Bangkok smell” that is like a punch in the face. I never know its source but the smell is unique to the city. The smell is so vile that you often take in another lung full just to prove it is authentic. A few steps later and it has gone.

Pantip Plaza

I dropped Celine off for her afternoon class at a swanky hotel spending the next few hours looking for running shoes in the Siam Paragon sports hall then book hunting at Kinokuniya. I picked Celine up in the lobby where we finished our coffees trying to work out how a nearby building had got approval to be developed (see picture). I mean seriously are we the only two that are thinking this?

What does this look like?


After, we cruised around Siam, which reminds us of parts of Seoul, dodging the afternoon downpour before chilling in a café as the sun came down. It was a fun day.

My week in Bangkok: Monday

Street Food at Happyland Centre

My Monday morning starts early with a 7am class. Luckily, the company is not too far away so a short motorbike taxi, leaving from the bottom of our apartment block, makes it pretty easy. The motorbike taxi ride takes a few minutes and costs 15 baht. They never offer a helmet, despite it being the law, and asking for one receives the same bewildered expression time after time, so to save the hassle Celine bought me one.

My next class requires the skytrain and then a bus. It takes a little under an hour to get there. I read a book to pass the time. My class is in a company that sits alongside Bang Kapi Mall; one of the big shopping centers in Bangkok. Close to the Mall is Happyland Centre; a separate shopping centre that has a big food court of street food. This is where I usually take an early lunch with a great selection to choose from. This is the same food court where my brother, Chris and his now wife, Nok came to eat Papaya salad, among other things, many years ago. Nok used to study around this area so knows the Mall well and would take Chris here. I will try the Papaya salad next week.

Happyland centre street food stand

Lunch at Happyland


My final class of the day is near my home and finishes at 6pm. I went to meet Celine on Sukhumvit Soi 38, the Soi we stayed in when we first arrived. Here, they have some great street food so we both dug into a noodle soup for an early dinner.

Soi 38 Noodle Soup

Soi 38 Street Food

After, we crossed the road and walked up Soi 55 (Thong Lor Street). This area has a bunch of trendy restaurants, cafes and bars as well as small shopping centers and various boutique stores. The evening seems to be the time to go. We noted a few must visit restaurants and searched in vain for a particular pub. Without luck we took a taxi, who decided to take the longest possible way, to Soi 33 for a beer at an English pub. Soi 33 and the surrounding area have a bunch of pubs and bars to choose from and is only a 10-15 minute walk from home. Happy days.

I am sold! Thong Lor Street; This burger place is on my list

Preparing to cook Asian food

I come from a family of cordon bleus. My mum can cook about anything, my grandmas make amazing family stuff like bouillabaisse, paella and couscous, my sister has her own cooking blog... I mean come on, I can't even make a quiche. Well, I tried, a couple of days ago, but it turns out making a quiche in Thailand is damn expensive, it kind of defeats the purpose. Making Thai food is cheap, of course, but there's no point sweating on making a Thai curry for hours when I can buy one downstairs in 5 minutes and let's face it... the one from the street stand downstairs is much, much nicer than I would ever be able to make it. So, when I thought about the price of the ingredients (only cheap stuff here is obviously what Thai people use, not the imported ingredients) and what I could make with them that wasn't already available at every street corner here for like, a dollar, it became clear to me that I would have to concentrate on:
- Thai food that I can't find at every street corner near my house
- Other Asian foods

So I bought an awesome Asian cookbook.

After browsing a few recipes, I went for the biggest shop ever. I got all the Asian cooking sauces and curry pastes you can think of... My kitchen is rudimentary: I don't even have an oven, and I had only one poor frying pan. So I bought a grill-saucepan thing. It's amazing, I can cook everything with it.

I will keep this blog updated on recipes I'm trying, but this particular post is mainly about that huge shopping...

I'm quite impressed with my shopping list and most of all with the price of things here. Buying only Asian products makes shopping much more affordable!

Here's a picture of everything I bought, and here's the list:

1 electric grill/wok combined
1 Chopping board
2 chopping knives
1 Wooden spoon
3 Tupperware’s
1 washing up liquid
1 pack of Ginger Tea
1 bottle of olive oil
1 bottle of Sesame oil
1 bottle of normal oil
1 bottle of Worcestershire sauce
1 jar of ground coriander
1 bottle of oyster sauce
1 bottle of teriyaki sauce
1 jar of peanut butter
3 cartons of coconut milk
14 packs of chili/curry paste bases
3 x rice paper rolls
1 x kg rice
7 x packs fresh and dried noodles
3 x packs tofu
400g minced pork
6 x chicken fillets
200g duck
Salted cashew nuts
Roasted pumpkin kernels
Organic sesame seeds
10 x garlic
1 x pack mushrooms
Bok choy (Chinese broccoli)
4 x limes
1 Pack of red chilis
1 Pack of fresh ginger
6 x red apples
4 x onions
Various herbs
2 x corn on the cob
2 x bread bun packs
3 x cardboard dividers (to help sort my work books and documents)
1 x A4 plastic case
1 x glue
4 x hooks for the wall

Man will I be able to cook with THAT!!!
Exciting!

Teaching Kids: Bangkok vs Hanoi

In Vietnam I taught predominantly kids and teenagers. As a whole they were great; respectful, friendly and generally enthusiastic.

For that reason I assumed the same for Thailand and also planned to teach kids and teenagers here. On arrival in Bangkok, which happened to be the middle of Songkran, we were desperate to find work quickly. Nearly all the work available was for kids and teenagers so things seemed to be going according to plan. Being the holiday period it was difficult to get confirmed work and the days started to drift by. When we both got called for an interview we were very happy. The company, which places teachers in public schools, was quite new, terribly dis-organised and didn't really seem to know what was going on. We were both offered Monday to Friday jobs teaching in different schools in out of the way locations. I was asked to teach math and Celine science and PE. The place didn't have a good feel but we tentatively agreed. We had nothing better.

A few days later we landed our current jobs; teaching corporate English. From what I have seen so far this has been a very lucky break. Kids in general in Bangkok I am sure are great but I have already seen clear differences to those in Vietnam, making teaching here more difficult. Other teachers have told me of difficulties in their classes where kids are refusing to listen to the teacher, are bullying other kids, won't answer questions and are uninterested. This is a generality of course as I also know of kids that are incredibly enthusiastic, diligent and courteous. My only problems in close to two years in Vietnam were teenagers who were uninterested in learning and young kids who were near impossible to control when they go over excited. Apart from that they were great.

Recently, I took a local bus to head out to one of my corporate classes. A bunch of school kids jumped on, giggling continuously, when they saw me. Of course this is no problem. Then they stood next to me and bumped me a few times, pretending it was because of bumps in the road, before giggling under their breath. Knowing what kids in Australia are capable of at that age, me included, I smiled it off as harmless fun. That being said, I never experienced anything like that in Vietnam.

On another bus trip, while stopped at a bus stop near a school, some kids outside noticed me. They each had their own little spit gun, haven't we all, that they were shooting each other with. When they saw me they started spit firing their bits of rubber and what not at my window; then pointing and laughing hysterically. This I thought was a bit rude but hey I would be a hypocrite to judge too much. Kids like to have fun so I guess the years of foreigner influence in Thailand has made them more comfortable when it comes to spitting rubber at bald Australians. This is what tourism will do to you. However, I am pretty happy I don't have to teach that bunch English everyday. Teaching adults, which was not the original plan, has worked out perfectly.

Bangkok Visa Extension

Immigration in Bangkok

Recently I had to get a visa extension to extend my stay in Thailand an extra 30 days. As this was my first time I was a little unsure of the process and found conflicting information online as well as on other travel related information. For that reason I thought I would explain the process.

You need to go to Sub Division 1 at the Bangkok Government Center on Chaengwattana Road. This has apparently been the case since 2009 but maps, including the Groovy Maps which are otherwise a good buy, nearly sent me to the old Immigration Office in town near Silom. This would have been much more practical. However, the new office requires a longer trip.

The best way to get there is to take the sky train to Mo Chit. From there you have a few options. I took a taxi which cost 100 baht going there and 125 baht coming back. It took me around 25 minutes. There are countless taxis leaving from the station. There are some vans leaving from either Mo Chit (#10) or Victory Monument (#64, 82, 87) but I have not tried using these. To take a van you really need to know what you are doing or have all the information written down in Thai. I recommend this for a taxi as well. I took a van once by showing people my written note saying where I wanted go. I was directed to the right place and the driver dropped me where I needed to go. It cost 20 baht. That being said it was quite a drawn out trip so I recommend taking the taxi.

Once at the Immigration you first need to fill out an application form. You then proceed to another counter to get a queue ticket. And then you wait. I arrived at 10am with 45 people in front of me. About 5 people before my number they took lunch which they do every day from 12-1pm. At 1.30pm my number was called. Here you must present your passport, passport photo and photocopies of your main passport page, your visa, your visa stamp and your departure card. Make sure you have all these things. I forgot to copy the departure card which received a frown from the officer but thankfully she didn't ask me to go and get it copied. There are photo and photocopy services at the center if you need them. I paid my 1,900 baht and 20 minutes had my visa. I was there for 4 hours.

So,

1. Get there early. 10am is to late.
2. Make sure everything is photocopied.
3. Take the taxi from Mo Chit.
4. Get someone to write down the address in Thai.

If you do find yourself there over lunch there is a decent food court and even a bit of shopping you can do.

I counted 12 different nationalities just from the passports I actually saw people carrying. There would have been many more. Thailand is attracting people from all over the world and this little visa extension business must be a nice little revenue raiser.

Teaching English in Bangkok

So, it is getting close to two months of teaching in Bangkok. We have both found work with an English language centre teaching corporate classes. This is a big change from kids and teenagers in Hanoi but is a new challenge and has been really enjoyable. Most of the corporate classes are at the company so there is a lot of public transport jumping from class to class. It has been a really good way to explore the city. Depending on where the company is you will get some kind of transport allowance which will cover your costs. Working in companies also gives you a first-hand look at the set up of many different Thai offices. Often I walk through the middle of an open plan office to get to a meeting room. Giggles usually follow as I pass.

At the moment I am working for a number of different companies. These include a tyre, telecommunications, supermarket chain, baby formula and wheel manufacturing companies. They are spread out across the city. I use the full range of public transport options available including motorbikes, trains, taxis, company vans, buses and even grabbed a lift with a student once. You either have the option of watching the buzz of the city as you cruise through the streets or using the travel time to catch up on a good book. I alternate between the two.

The students are all generally great. Most of them want to learn (some are forced to be there by their company) and are respectful and friendly. There does not seem to be the overwhelming hunger to learn English like in Vietnam but that being said I don’t have any corporate experience from Vietnam to compare. I try to incorporate some of the games I used in Vietnam with the kids with mixed results. Some companies, foreign owned and managed, seem to be passing their culture too deep into their Thai employees. The games which seem to interesting to everyone else don’t receive much enthusiasm. Jokes are tough to crack as well. If they don’t like my stupid jokes I am doomed. That is my wholes sales pitch. That being said, most enjoy the classes I give them and are very appreciative. The Thais are funny and like to have fun in the classroom. That makes them very easy to teach.

I am teaching everyday so getting decent hours is not a problem. The money is much less than Vietnam but that is across the board so there is not too much you can do. Corporate work definitely pays the best so if you have a bit of experience that is a good avenue to go for. Otherwise, you can teach kids and teenagers in a branch which I plan to do to fill up my hours. It is also a good way to meet new people.

Tomorrow, I have an early class starting a bit after 7am. It is close to home so a short motorbike taxi is all that is needed. After, a modern sky train followed by a run-down, battling old bus will take me to my next class. In the evening I teach a long way out of town in a manufacturing company where everyone wears pink polo shirts - an interesting touch. I company van, local bus, sky train and motorbike taxi is required to get home. At the moment the travel in interesting but I suspect it will get tiring and painful at some point.

One worm one dollar

Today for lunch we splurged and went to a Korean restaurant in Korea town, 500 meters away from our Soi. I've really been missing Korean food, in Hanoi I'd eat Korean at least once a week. I love how they bring you 15 small dishes as well as what you ordered... It's always such a feast: kimchi pancake and Dduk Bok Kki are my all time favs. The latter is a rich spicy red dish, made of cylindric rice cakes, a bit like thick pasta or gnocci. I love it. In Seoul, it's sold as a street food everywhere. Sometimes it's just a bit spicy, and sometimes it will burn your head off.
Today we ordered the Dduk Bok Kki and were surprised to find some weird seafood and sea snails in it... the most surprising though, was to find that one of the bits of food I picked from the center's dish to place inside Dan's bowl, good wife that I am, happened to be a massive worm.
I was a bit shocked, but I thought it was a sea worm. When I saw the little legs on it though and realised it was definitly the only worm in the dish, it started to dawn on me that this wasn't part of the meal. It was a mistake worm, so escaped from the kitchen's walls worm...
Ergh. It was all flat too, meaning its insides had been released in the sauce we'd been eating. Gross.
We pointed the massive empty worm to the waitress, who blushed and ran into the kitchens. I was laughing and fighting the urge to be sick at the same time. But joy o joy, when the waitress came back, she offered us a massive 10% discount for our misfortune!! How lucky ARE WE??? That's like... a whole dollar!

So, now you understand the title of this post... because in Korea Town, Bangkok, it's a well known fact: one worm = one dollar.