Getting Started in Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok the afternoon of February 5th, made it through immigration with our two month tourist visas (secured at the Portland, OR Thai consulate before we left the States), and proceeded to jump in a taxi and quickly get stuck in Bangkok’s notorious traffic. We were headed to meet up with two friends (Iven and Kashmira) at the condo of another two friends (Roy and Bonita), who graciously let us stay at their condo while they were back in the States for a couple of weeks. Iven and Kashmira are working with YWAM in Bangkok with prostituted males. Before moving to Bangkok they had been living in Seattle. We never got a chance to meet them in the States but connected with them in Bangkok on our last trip here in November 2007 because of a mutual friend. We really enjoyed their company and they evidently didn’t dislike us because this trip they have truly welcomed us to Bangkok and done whatever they can to be helpful in getting us situated. (We will write more about both Iven and Kashmira and Roy and Bonita in coming posts.) That night we ate the first of what will be many wonderful meals from street vendors with Iven and Kashmira along with Van, another mutual friend of both of ours from Seattle who also just happened (unbeknownst to us) to be in Thailand exploring opportunities in her native land of Laos. It really is a small world.

The last three plus weeks here have been a bit of a blur. We hit the ground running. Thanks to Iven and Kashmira we started Thai lessons the first Monday after our arrival with their former Thai tutor. Phii Oo comes to teach us Thai 4 days a week for 3 hours each day (we each get 1.5 hours with him). Despite Phii O insisting that “Thai is easy, easy,” there are sounds my tongue refuses to make and I have literally had to resort to holding my tongue with my fingers (not in polite public of course) for a certain sound I still cannot make. I’ll let you know when I can.

After our Thai lessons during our second week here we pounded the pavement in different areas of Bangkok looking for an apartment. We were hot, tired, very dirty (SMOG!!!), and a little irritable (okay just me). Finally at the end of one day after walking miles, we came along New Petchburi Road, a very busy street, to look at one more place, called Union Tower. When we saw the outside of the building it looked a little run down and partly because of the busy road and immediate surroundings we thought, ‘This isn’t going to work.’ But we decided to look at it anyway and when we saw inside it was the nicest place we had seen, and of all the places (about 30) it was the only place that we liked, could afford, AND could actually move into right away. You can't judge a book by its cover. . .

The next day (Friday Feb. 20) we told Phii Oo that we were going on a field trip for our Thai lesson, and he graciously agreed to go back to the building to meet with the manager again to make sure there was nothing we had missed due to lack of language ability. It was really encouraging to see him negotiate (in a very Thai way of course) with Phii Fai, the manager, over anything that he thought we could get cheaper, looking out for us but also helping build a great relationship with her at the same time. Everything looked good and so the following Monday (a week ago today!) we loaded all of our stuff into a taxi and drove the ‘short’ distance (short being a very relative term depending on the traffic) to our new home which you can see in a previous post.

We had hoped to get a place here between US$200-$300 per month and with everything included (including internet but not electricity) we are paying about $310 a month. Thank you to those who were praying. We could have found something cheaper but by paying just a little more we got much more in terms of space and light so we are very grateful. And we have a pool up on the roof which we are also really grateful for.

The windows in our living room face west toward many of the high-rises of Bangkok including the Baiyoke Tower, the tallest building in Thailand (85 floors). Thus we have some nice sunsets brought about from the not so nice pollution. The busy Petchaburi Road runs in front of our building east –west and is parallel to Sukhumvit Road which becomes Ploenchit. Immediately across the road is Saen Sap Khlong (Canal) which is an easy and cheap way to move east or west through the city. More on transportation later. Behind our building, or the view from our balcony/sink is to the North. Right below is a set of railway tracks that are in regular use throughout the day as well as a new rail system that is due to open in August linking the downtown corridor with the new International airport to the south-east of us. There is still a lot of work going on around this new transportation link so it feels a little industrial and is a little loud some of the time. Beyond the tracks you reenter somewhat normal (albeit pricier) Bangkok neighborhood, with large houses intermixed with high-rises.

Andrea