Category: Bangkok

Now I am moving to Bangkok I am on a mission to explore it a bit more. I know only a small part of what this wonderful city has to offer.

So a few weeks ago my friends and I went to a little street restaurant on Udom Suk Road for my, must have, dinner of somtam. I normally have the papaya salad with chicken or pork, but they had run out so we were presented with a plate of pig intestine. It definitely did not look very appetising, but my friends told me to try, so I did. I was pleasantly surprised – it tasted a bit like liver, which I like. The other dish that we had was cat-fish, again something I have not tried before, and, again, it was really tasty. Very delicious, washed down with a cold singha beer. So that was the first first of the night.

Next, my friends took me to Talat Rot Fai– a vintage market, translated as train market, in Sri Nakarin, soi 51.
The market is one of the best I have been to in Thailand. There are funky shops selling retro clothes and shoes. You might also find old cameras or sewing machines. The main market area is big. There are stalls selling anything from food, to DVDs and old books, and vintage clothing all at reasonable prices. There is an old train station which has vintage cars and motorbikes, antique furniture and other artifacts from long ago. The market has a lively atmosphere with live music playing out of the many bars and clubs, and there are also a few cocktail cars-including an old VW Beetle which has been refashioned into a bar. We didn’t buy anything we just browsed, enjoying the atmosphere, and watching the people from our vantage point at a cool little bar we found. The second first of the night.

I had a meeting the following day with my new boss, but afterwards I met my friend, Chris, for lunch. Once lunch was finished we arranged to meet at soi 19 to go and visit another friend who has recently opened his new tailors shop-Jesse and Son. I wanted to interview them for an article about their shop, so we spent a couple of hours there before moving on to have a drink at a nearby bar.
What was supposed to happen was go to see Jesse, go home and get changed, and then go out for the evening. But plans are meant to be broken. What actually happened was we went to see Jesse, went for a drink at a nearby bar, ordered another drink, and went out straight from there. We went to the Sky Train Jazz Club- a sky bar near to Victory Monument BTS. Not exactly a sky bar- it was only six floors up. I renamed it the “not very high sky bar” because we were still dwarfed by the sky scrapers. The third first of the night

We ordered food and a bottle of whiskey- don’t forget it was a night of firsts. Not the first time I have drank whiskey but it certainly isn’t my usual tipple. The Sky Train Jazz Club is supposed to be a jazz club-the clue’s in the name-but they weren’t playing much jazz there. There was a groovy CD playing and I liked some of the songs so I asked my Thai friend, Pond, to ask what it was, and being a little drunk I asked “could I have it?” To which they replied “sure, as long as you have your photograph taken?” Er, OK then. I had my photograph taken with the guy who had compiled the CD, and they changed the CD, which was still playing, so I could have the one I had cheekily acquired. This goes with my philosophy- if you don’t ask you don’t get!

Later on my other friend, Nay, arrived we had a few more drinks and decided to go to Silom to continue the party. But we were not allowed to leave until the whole bottle of whiskey had gone-an impromptu rule made up by Chris.

The whiskey got drunk, we hopped over to Silom in a taxi, and carried on dancing and drinking in a couple of cool little bars-one of which was another first. And we ended the night on the steps of 7 11 eating pork sticks- classy.
I had so much fun that night, fun like I am used to in the UK. I danced for the first time since leaving home, and everyone knows dancing is good for the soul. I went to familiar places but experienced some new places as well.

Living in Bangkok is going to be good for me in so many respects and I know that I will enjoy many nights of firsts over the next few months.

I have been teaching in Bangsaen since May. After only two days I felt a little overwhelmed. I had good days and bad days, where the lessons went ok or they didn’t. The kids are so noisy and there are 32 9 and 10 year olds- so it was very difficult to keep them engaged.

I was talking to my friend about this and he said that 32 is far too many kids to give them all the much needed attention that they deserve. Believe me, 32 in a class is low for Thailand, some schools have 50 + students. Imagine! But, he said, it is also up to the teacher to try and engage them- a 50 minute class is a long time to keep them all interested, but I needed to find ways to get them learning without them getting bored. A difficult task at hand.

Two weeks later I wasn’t feeling much better. I always looked forward to the weekend, when I could just forget about work for two days. Not that I wanted to wish my life away, but I was thinking that I couldn’t do more than a year at this school. I mean teaching was great, and the kids are cute-very noisy and some of them have proper attitudes- but they are cute, and their little characters were just starting to emerge- so some of them made me laugh every day.

Nearly two months in and, dare I say it, it was going well. I was halfway to enjoying the teaching, but I realised I prefer teaching older students. The younger ones are so noisy, and a little harder to control, and this is not helped by the co-worker who talks in Thai to them when I am trying to teach them. (This has got a little better after having a few kindly words in his ear). When the classes went well, it really is a pleasure to teach the students, but the bad classes leave me feeling like I cannot teach-it’s a little soul destroying. But I decided I was sticking with it, although I was always on the look-out for another job.

So I knew I had to get out but I didn’t know which way to turn- go back to Surin, go to Sri Lanka or last resort go home? Yes, Sri Lanka is on my mind a lot at the moment. Maybe it is time for me to experience a new country, but that’s a story for another day.
It’s the atmosphere in the office that I have never liked. There is some sort of daily drama every day, and I don’t like friction, whether I am involved or not. It really sets me on edge and it doesn’t make for a pleasant working environment.

After talking to my friend, Chris, over a few civilized beers, he told me not to go anywhere yet but to apply to his company in Bangkok who were looking for female teachers. Chris is always full of guidance and advice, and he gave me the answer I was looking for.

I applied and I got the job, so am moving to Bangkok next month.

This has made me very happy- the last three months I have not been myself. Working somewhere I don’t want to and wondering whether I would even get a new job. I was planning on handing my notice in anyway at the end of the current term and exercising my plan B- move back to UK, at least until March. But at the back of my mind I never wanted to do that.

Everything about this new job sounds great- I will be teaching older students, a week off every six weeks, plus time off in December and April, so I will have time for writing and more travel. It will be a bit of a lifestyle change working evenings and weekends but it will be worth it.

I will be living in Sri Nakarin, near Bang Na. It’s a good area, outside of central Bangkok; close to a park where I can run, and cheapish condos which I am still yet to find. I have friends there already so I have a ready-made social life. And I can start to explore the parts of Bangkok that I don’t know about more easily.

I will miss teaching the kids- they really are a lot of fun but I have got to do what is right for me. So all in all a very good move for me and I cannot wait.

On Nut (pronounced oh noot) night market is located just beside On-Nut BTS station on Soi 50 in Bangkok. It’s a great place to hang out for the evening if you don’t want to venture too far into Bangkok.
It kicks off around 5pm but the later you get there the busier it is. At least if you get there earlier you can bag a seat. There are seating areas surrounded by market stalls (it is a market after all) where you can buy the usual stuff- clothing, souvenirs and the like. But there are also food stalls where you can buy anything from somtum and chicken or pork, to chicken with cashew nuts and rice, or something to satisfy your sweet tooth- whatever you fancy really.

When you have chosen what you want and ordered it just tell them where you are sitting and they will bring it to you. Excellent!
I have been there a few times, and one time with friends, we arrived at around 6pm, ordered our food and had a few drinks. We didn’t leave until around 1am and we wondered how much the bill would be. Don’t think that because you are at a night market, and not one of the plusher establishments in town, that things will be cheaper, because they are not. The beer prices are almost the same as what you would pay on Soi 11- 100 baht for a large tiger. The food prices, however, are much cheaper than proper restaurants (around 35 baht for somtum for example).

Nevertheless it is a great place to spend a few hours. They have local bands, playing on two stages that they have rigged up, and there is a constant hive of activity, with people coming and going.

They also have toilet facilities situated at the back which cost 5 baht. You can get change from the toilet facilitators to use in the turnstile to get in, and there is toilet roll, which is an absolute bonus. Not the cleanest, but as long as you can put up with the squat style toilet, they are right there for your convenience.

So all in all a different night out away from the bright lights of central Bangkok as long as you don’t mind the resident rats that occasionally run under your feet, I totally recommend it to get more of a local experience.

 

Bangkok is not a destination that you would normally associate with art and culture centres. But there are quite a few dotted over the city, so I decided to put my cultural hat on and visit the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and I was happy I did, it is well worth a visit.

The centre is located at National Stadium BTS stop and opposite MBK centre, so you can’t really miss it. I got off the BTS at Ratchthwei and walked back towards the centre and was almost disappointed when I saw that there was scaffolding all over it and barriers surrounding it. I thought it was closed but I walked around and found the entrance and realised it was open.

There are five floors that circle around the main foyer, and on the ground floor there are a couple of coffee shops. The Art Café is a chic little place decorated with beautiful murals and there are easels, magazines to read, and funky jazz tunes playing.
On the first couple of floors there are more cafes. Most of them sell crafts or books, and some of them you can go to share ideas, read books, or just have a coffee. There are also little stalls selling homemade jewellery and handicrafts, and there were painters painting caricature portraits. There are ice cream cafes which sell a weird and wonderful range of flavours- cigarette (yuk), wasabi and global warming??!!

On the second floor there are a couple of rooms displaying different art and one of the exhibitions was the “Illusion of the Human Body”. Large painted canvases showing parts of the body stitched together. It was meant to represent how people turn to plastic surgery to achieve beauty when there is natural beauty in everyone.

Wandering up and around the floors there was more art- paintings, sculptures and hand-made jewellery displays. Floors seven, eight and nine are used for the main exhibitions with new ones each month. The day that I visited there was only one main exhibition. A collaboration of Thai and British artists called MD III- Monologue, Dialogue. The idea behind this exhibition was fragility and monumentality. The explanation was it illustrates nothing. It is a continuation of a conversation started eight years ago between the artists.
“ failure and nothingness are key words in art and ones that can be embraced resulting in fragility and a vision that is unexpected. Monumentality is about presence, and can be about the awkwardness of being”- quote from part of the exhibition.
Whether you understand the meaning behind this or not the pieces displayed in the exhibition are impressive. I had to guess at what “The Ghost of Jimmy the Nail” meant. It wasn’t until afterwards when doing some online research that I realised that the cotton sheets were hung in the shape of a nail and there were rusty spots on the sheets, which I think are meant to represent blood. I still haven’t fathomed the meaning, so if anyone knows please enlighten me.

The creativity and foresight these artists have is incredible. I am certainly no expert,  in fact I would say I know nothing about art , but I was definitely impressed, although a little bemused, at everything I saw there.

The centre is open Tuesday to Sunday 10.00am to 9.00pm. Admission is free.
Address
Bangkok Art and Culture Centre
939 Rama 1 Road, Wangmai, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330

www.bacc.or.th
www.facebook.com/baccpage
www.twitter.com/baccnews