Updates: Loy Krathong

(Translated folk song)
November full moon shines
Loy Krathong, loy Krathong
and the water's high in the river and local klong
Loy Krathong is here and everybody's full of cheer
We're together at the klong
Each one with his krathong
As we push away we pray
We can see a better day

Loy Krathong is a festival celebrated annually throughout Thailand. It is held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. “Loi” means “to float”. “Krathong” is a raft traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk (although modern-day versions often use styrofoam), decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks.
The history of the festival is very obscure and probably originated in India as a Hindu festival similar to Divali as thanksgiving to the deity of the Ganges with floating lanterns for giving life throughout the year. In Thai rural areas it commemorates both the ending of the rainy season and the all important rice harvest.
According to the writings of H.M. King Rama IV in 1863, the festival was adapted by Buddhists in Thailand as a ceremony to honour the Lord Buddha. Apart from venerating the Buddha with light (the candle on the raft), the act of floating away the candle raft is symbolic of letting go of all one's grudges, anger and defilements, so that one can start life afresh on a better foot. People also cut their fingernails and hair and add them to the raft as a symbol of letting go of the bad parts of oneself. Adding coins also brings fortune in money matters. Many Thai believe that floating a Krathong will create good luck, and this ritual is done to honor and thank the Goddess of Water, Phra Mae Khongkha. It is generally a romantic night where couples ask for blessings in their relationships.

We went to a lake in a nearby park and under the light of the full moon couples flocked to the water’s edge. After carefully selecting a lotus flower Krathong we lit the candle and incense sticks and placed a strand of our hair and a coin on it. Placing it into the dark murky water, we made a wish (not hard to guess what ours would be :-). The pond came to life with the flicker of candlelight and the musky odour of burning incense. It was a visually evocative and romantic experience with couples silhouetted against twinkling lights sending thoughts of love with their Krathongs as they floated silently into the moonbeams on the dark silky water.
Beautiful....

Happy Birthday Felix

24-11-07
To my dearest father. Happy Birthday!
Hope you have a wonderful day.
I love you.

Updates: Pantip Plaza

It has been a while.... Lots has happened in the past two weeks. Work is as busy as ever and I am still rushing around buying xmas presents for family - the experience is slightly more credible due to recent xmas decorations and songs flooding the soundwaves (despite the fact that it is quite hot here and yeah.. still November!)
We have been to the doctor (yeah... I had been putting that off a bit). He was delighted with the statue of the Virgin Mary which we had bought him in Fatima last August (made a good xmas pressie). Basically, we went for information on the IVF procedure. I had read conflicting information on the web re cost and how long it takes and steps involved. So, in Thailand it takes 5 weeks from the stage where I get a nasal spray to supress hormones one week before my period, to ultrasounds and self administered hormone injections (will have to recruit my own personal nurse Amandio for that! :-), to extracting the eggs under anesthetic, mixing them with Amandio's sample, reinserting - a number to be decided on - of embryos to the final two week wait for the pregnancy test. The hospital has a 40% success rate which seems to be quite high. Sit down for the cost though... 250,000 Bhat and up - 5,000 Euro. Hmm.. well, we may have to have a conversation with Amex :-)
We also bought a 'spanking' new computer. Here goes my attempt at all the technical mumbo jumbo .... HP Pavilion, Intel Core 2Duo processor, 2042RAM and 280GB memory, graphics of 512MB G-force, 2MB L2 Cache, HP 22inch flat lcd monitor with optimum resolution 1680 x 1050 @ 60 Hz, wireless keyboard and optical mouse. Our software (XP Service pack 2, Adobe, WMPlayer etc) is all pirated.. (all done in the time it took to buy some counterfeit DVDs) courtesy of where we bought the pc, an experience in itself - Pantip Plaza - a techies wet dream, a haven of modern day pirates :-) Despite regular police raids (early warning system in place) it seems to boom with underworld trading. Most of the hundreds of small shops specialise in computer hardware, software and accessories, including parts, repair, modifications, networking, second hand, laptops, Macintosh and peripherals. We almost bought a video camera but decided to wait on that, prioritising the pc, as we have decided to offer my 1 year old laptop to my brother for xmas seeing as we prefer to have a desktop at home, now that we have a more reliable internet cable connection.
The only genuine bit of software is the upgrade I bought online for Windows Movie Maker - the full pack with loads of transition and video effects! I will get my teeth into this when we get back from Portugal in January. Looking forward!
The countdown is on for our departure on Tuesday 27th. A trip to Chatuchak market, a xmas bowling/dinner work night out and finishing off the last version of the NCTest is on the cards for this weekend.
I can't wait for Portugal..I feel like I have been living for the future a lot recently, not really in the here and now. All very exciting, but I need to catch my breath :-)

Updates: Diwali

Today is Friday 9th December! (dunno what is wrong with this date thingy)

With firecrackers keeping me up late at night for the last two days I decided to look into what the festival which is being celebrated in noisy Indian style on my soi is all about. All the balconies are beautifully lit up, mouth watering aromas of Indian cooking wafts in through open windows potently mixed with sulphur from the fireworks erupting in the night sky. Lovely really - pure exotic colourful Indian style. Here is some information I found out about it:

Diwali, Divali, or Deepawali (Markiscarali) is a major Indian and Nepalese festive holiday. What started as a harvest festival in ancient times, became associated with many legends and became a significant festival in Hinduism and is known across the globe as the "Festival of Light," where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within every human being during a five day celebration.

The most popular legend associated with Diwali today is the homecoming of King Rama of Ayodhya after a 14-year exile in the forest. The people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (deepa), thus its name, Deepawali, or simply shortened as Diwali.

Some view it as the day Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura or in honor of the day Bali went to rule the nether-world by the order of Vishnu.
In Jainism it marks the nirvana of Lord Mahavira, which occurred on Oct. 15, 527 B.C.

The festival marks the victory of good over evil, and uplifting of spiritual darkness. Symbolically it marks the homecoming of goodwill and faith after an absence, as suggested by the story of Ramayana.

On the day of Diwali, many wear new clothes, share sweets and snacks. Some North Indian business communities start their financial year on Divali and new account books are opened on this day.

Happy Diwali to my Indian friends :-)

New vids on DM

Above link should direct you straight to my most recent vids on DM - (testing)

Food: Pork Risotto

Ingredients:
(I usually do this by eye, but I'll try writing the quantities....)

For four people
Olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion
3 Red chillies/Tabasco/Chilli past
1 cinnamon stick
1tsp cumin seeds
Rosemary and Thyme to taste
1 pork stock cube
Handful raisins
200g Risotto rice
250 - 300g minced pork
100g bacon cubes
4 leeks (Chinese Onion)
200g shitake mushrooms (or other variety)
1 red pepper
handful cherry tomatoes
tin of tomato concentrate (optional)
Garnish: spring onions, feta cheese, parsley

Method:
Heat some olive oil in frying pan. Add garlic and cumin seeds. One minute later add the chopped onion and allow to sauté until transparent in colour. Mix in the bacon cubes and pork mince (or meat chunks/spicy sausages), adding chillies/chilli paste, cinnamon stick, rosemary and thyme. Allow to cook for a while. Stir in the risotto rice, raisins and tomato concentrate. Cover the mixture with water and bring to the boil. Add the stock cube, turn down the heat and let simmer until the risotto is cooked. You will need to check this every 10mins as it can stick to the bottom of the pan and usually needs more water.
After the rice is almost cooked, add the mushrooms (whole or halved), leeks and tomatoes. Check for seasoning. Cook (lowest heat) for another 20mins - (this depends on taste...but I like risotto to be mushy)adding some parmesan cheese to taste.
Allow it to cool for 10 minutes and serve with a finely chopped green salad dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. A glass of red wine and bon appetite!

Note: A more Mediterranean style would be without the cumin, chilli and cinammon and would add wine as well as stock (my taste buds are getting slightly more exotic :-). I usually do this without the tomato concentrate and add more leek and cherry tomatoes at the end... thought I would try something new though.
These ingredients can vary and is a great dish to use up whatever you have in the fridge.
For the salad the best way to get it really fresh and crunchy is to finely cut the lettuce, put it into a colander and wash it with cold water. Leave it in the colander and put it into the fridge for at least 15minutes or until ready to serve. Pour the dressing on the lettuce just as you are about to sit at the table.

Oh.... it tastes even better the next day!

Poetry: Drive

Drive
Up and down and left and right
just go

road road road
let it grow grow grow

tar and asphalt dreams whirl by your head like dead dust bunnies
and you wonder where you're going

so you go, just go go go

and your mind is a terrible driver and swerves, mad with glee, as if dancing with insanity

the desert was meant for you, it seems, as the city flees from your sight, far far behind, in dream time

and you drive drive drive but the tears make it hard to see, you stop for gas and a snack to refill the machine..

but you leave it all behind, the mountains beckon your state of mind
so you walk, stumble and drop into the dry wind and its like a tunnel, sweeping you into crime

the dust never settles the sands in your eye and the ocean chuckles far far away but you continue to shuffle, shuffle your feet to your destiny, a place to be, to go go go thats all you know, and your friends settle and the years slide by, like rain drops off a windshield

this thing called life baffles you, these passions burden you, your spirits drink with you in schizophrenic tendencies and your consciousness is bitch slapped across the face by a stranger in passing

you fall to your knees as the night sweeps its mask suddenly and the coyotes howl and cactus shakes, your bones beg to break your heart yearns to breathe in reality and your mind has its suitcases in hand and its ticket between its teeth, all thats left is a soul boxed and locked, buried deep, wrapped in an army jacket of hope, and all you can do is curl up to protect your last sanity

and then....

a crossroads presents options of a child in a sweet shop, an insatiable appetite turning cartwheels across your mind

maybe? maybe a sun spits and shakes and breaks free, cutting through the night's insecurities and maybe a melody goes supernova in a spirit and escapes to the gravity of your ears and maybe you stumble across another soul, a pair of eyes, an infinity, godly humanity, and things are alright and you get up from your knees and pay for your fucking gas and get back on that road and drive drive drive like the road is suddenly ending and you're free

(this one is a little different to my usual style - came flooding out :-)

Updates: Royal Barges

Yesterday we were invited to a Thai style house (built in 1908 by the Royal family and still lived in to this day by a Royal Prince) to sit by the river pavilion and watch the Royal Barge Procession in honour of the King's 80th birthday.
At the trumpeting of the conch shell, chana and mahorathuk drums and then the royal anthem, the 52 Royal Barges with over 2,000 oarsmen began their journey down the Chao Phraya river in a majestic display of colour, culture and opulence. The oarsmen have to keep to in sync with the drums and follow the calls and flag signals of the Master Oarsman at the helm.
The procession was organised to mark His Majesty the King's 80th birthday on Dec 5. However, the King failed to attend as both his Majesty and his sister, her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana, are still being treated at Siriraj Hospital.
Instead his Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn presided over the procession and later presented the Royal Krathin Robes to monks at the Temple of Dawn, marking the end of Buddhist Lent.
The Royal Barge Procession is a part of Thai national heritage, teaching them how merciful the rivers can be and giving them the chance to make merit together for the afterlife.
The Royal Barges are descendants of fleets of boats developed for war in ancient times. In the Ayutthaya period (400 years ago) the fleets were decorated and served kings who wanted to travel by boat, especially for the ritual of presenting offerings to monks. During the rest of the year these elaborately decorated vessels can be seen in the Royal Barge Museum.
As the sun set behind the Temple of Dawn, I couldn't help wondering - have we been hurled back in time? Kings, royal barges, chants, traditional clothes, hundreds of oarsmen working in unison, the sound of water rushing along the prow - transcendental!
It is at times like this that I wish I had a real video camera!!

Updates: Award-Mr. Condom

Thai “Condom King” Receives Gates Award for Global Health

Established in 2000 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gates Award for Global Health recognizes organizations that have made major and lasting contributions to the field of global health. The award is administered by the Global Health Council, and presented at its annual international conference in Washington. A jury of international public health experts selects the award recipient based on leadership, record of achievement, innovation in program design, program stability and sustainability, collaboration with others, and impact across geographic and organizational boundaries. The prize consists of an award sculpture and $1 million. This year, almost 100 organizations were nominated for the award.

Mechai Viravaidya was recognised by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today with a $1 million award for confronting “taboo subjects like sex and HIV/AIDS directly in order to save lives,” the foundation said.

Mechai and Population Development Association worked closely with the Thai government to develop and implement a groundbreaking national HIV prevention program that led to a dramatic reduction in new HIV infections in Thailand, from 143,000 in 1991 to 21,000 in 2003. Because of his creative and often humorous approaches to promoting condom use, Mechai is known as Thailand’s “Condom King” and the generic word for the love glove in Thailand is “Mechai.”

To eccentrically prove his points, Mr. Viravaidya has pulled many stunts, including posing for cameras while drinking the same glass of water as an H.I.V.-positive person (to prove it’s not transmitted that way); offering free vasectomies at his restaurants; and bringing fistfuls of condoms to World Bank talks. In addition the PDA has taken a bold and direct approach in their condom campaign with slogans like, "SLIP IT ON, BEFORE YOU SLIP IT IN," on a key tag with a free condom and a picture post card with a heart shaped ring of condoms saying, "NO GLOVE, NO LOVE," etc. And of course, in 'Cabbages and Condoms' restaurants providing condoms instead of dinner mints and condoms instead of chocolates on pillows in the resorts.

Congrats Mr Mechai!! A well deserved award.

Reviews: Bangkok 8

I have decided to add a new category 'reviews' as well as the latest 'food' one(particularly because I'm not doing much writing these days). Lately I have been doing a lot of reading, going to bed earlier in the evenings - enjoying our cozy bedroom (after having bought the lamps and throws etc) and savouring the escapism into new worlds that authors draw me into. Hmmm the first one wasn't actually very far from home: Bangkok 8 by John Burdett. Felix, my father, being an avid lover and of course, writer of good detective stories recommended this book to me ages ago. I finally got around to reading it in Hua Hin.

This is not your typical murder mystery where a detective loses his partner and seeks out revenge on the culprit who is usually some obscure character, well - connected and out of the laws reach. Instead, it is set in the moneyed underbelly of Bangkok which in itself is the essence of secrecy and flavour needed to catapult this story into one of intrigue, paradoxes and cultural insights - a sensory overload in print! It took me out of my comfort zone, challenged all western preconceptions and above all took me on a journey into Buddhism and prostitution. Despite being a work of fiction, it is thoroughly researched, there being many aspects of the book that are true to life. Interestingly, this almost surreal book confirmed many of the things about life in Bangkok which had been suggested to me by my Thai students (how it is normal for university students to have a 'sugar-daddy' to sustain their education) or I had observed from my own experiences here. The main character, Sonchai,the son of a prostitue and an Amerian soldier, is an 'arhat'- a living Buddhist saint and is paired up with an American female FBI agent to work on this case. Sonchai not only narrates and weaves in twists and turns to solve the mystery, takes us with him on his personal quest for identity, but also educates in the way of Buddhism, drugs and corruption in Thailand, gem trafficking, sex changes and the difference between life in the East and the West.

Some interesting quotes:
- The sex industry's annual turnover is nearly double the Thai government's annual budget.
- Thai to non-Thai sex transactions accounts for only 5% of the whole industry, the rest being invisible to the foreign visitor.
- We do not look on death the way you do, farang. No one says 'sorry'. Would you be sorry about a sunset?
- Krung Trep means City of Angels, but we are happy to call it Bangkok if it helps to separate a farang from his money.

This book reverberates life seen from a new perspective.... warts and all :-)

Updates: Hua Hin

We are just back from four days in Hua Hin. Amandio went under the pretext that he had a lot of work to do there (he did.. but it could have waited until after Christmas) to accomodate my need for a break! I know it sounds terribly spoilt, but since we have come back from Portugal I haven't had a moment to breathe. I jumped at the chance to 'manipulate' :-) a situation and negotiate a few days out of the city. Needless to say, I spent the whole time reading by the pool, running along the beach road, cycling to hidden places in the area and eating... Out of the four days we spent there it rained on and off for three of them. It gave us a good opportunity to enjoy the outdoors given the cooler temperatures. It was thoroughly revitalising and when we returned I was ready to face writing a new version of the NCTest (for January university admissions to be completed before I leave for Portugal on 28th November). I am in the process of putting together the clip I made of our ... (dare I mention?)...pool suite villa, which I will post on DM. Lapping in luxury :-)