Monday, May 9, 2011

The Lung of Bangkok....by DB

Hi everyone.  It is finally me taking my turn at the blogging-wheel.
Much to my great surprise, amazement and delight - Jer arranged a bike tour in the country-side for my birthday back in April.  For many that may not sound so special...nice maybe...but not that special.  But for those who know how long I have been tryng to get Jer on a bike, they know this is very special to me.  I am one of those that have never grown up-or-out-of experiencing the first summer thrill of pulling my bike out of the garage each year.  That first spin around the block or up to the plaza or down to Port Credit...or wherever, is total freedom to me....and feels just like when I was 7 and could suddenly and easily get from one end of town to ther other, and all points in between,  in no-time-flat.  And lucky me I get to feel that, every single year...all summer long.

As Jerry wrote previously, our bike tour in the country was fabulous.  So much so, that we decided to someday do another bike tour in the city in what they call the 'Lung of Bangkok'...and this is that story.  As we learned, the area referred to as the Lung of Bangkok is a vast area of the city, on ther other side of the Chao Praya river that remains very green....and helps to feed the rest of the city with much needed clean air and oxygen. What we didn't know was that much of this area is only accessable by a hugh network of raised sidewalks or paths.
Well I have to tell you, this was a little daunting at the start.  There was very little looking around at the scenery, and a lot of concentration on the path ahead.  At one point Jer said that he was going to need a massage after our ride because his shoulders and neck were so tense from this 'concentrating on the path'.  I was feeling exactly the same.  But after a while we settled in and could relax a bit....but only when were not going around a hair-pin turn, or going up a steep ramp over a canal, or going back down a very steep (ok...I guess it was the 'same' steep as the up part!!) ramp on the other side of said ramp, or getting off the bike entirely because a motor bike was going to squeeze by (and they NEVER got off their bikes, or really slowed down all that much).  I think this paints a pretty good picture.  It was indeed a bike ride that made me very happy, in the green area of Bangkok that we had never seen or hear of....but it was a bit nerve-racking and about to get a little more so.

As you can see from the pictures, there are no barriers or rails on about 98% of this raised sidewalk.  But at one point we take a sharp left turn, and directly in front of us (or now along the right side of the path) we notice that a barrier or fence has been constructed for about 40 feet.....of barbed wire.  Yikes.  For the split second when I first caught sight, I realized that I would vastly prefer the previously dreaded fall off the path...than running up against this very rusty fence.  Then just like the cop shows tell us that sometimes people (usually who have been drinking) when they see a flashing light on the side of the road to warn them to stay away....they instead drive straight towards it.

Don't ask me why or how.....because I really, really don't know.  All I do know is that suddenly I was hung up in the fence, the front wheel of my bike dangling down between the path and the fence, the back wheel still on the path along with my left foot. I was fully leaning into the barb wire with my arms caught up in it, but I couldn't push myself up and away as my right foot was caught up and I could not get any leverage.
Jer was ahead of me and heard my yelp....jumped off his bike and in a flash was behind me and we frantically started to call out possible moves.  He freed my right foot so that I could find a non-barbed piece of the fence to put it on to support myself, and then he pulled up the bike and freed me from this tangled hell!!

A few tense and then shakey moments followed....cleaned and stopped the bleeding from a few puncture wounds...then walked our bikes out of the raised path maze...back on bikes once we hit a road.....then into a clinic for some more cleaning, a small incision for better cleaning, then a single stitch for the worst of the wounds. Actually the clinic experience was very impressive...they did not even ask me my name...and would take no money after they had done their work.  They said no, Thai goverment looks after all people.

So that is our story of a little bike ride in the Lung of Bangkok.  And for full impact, I also include pictures of the various scratches, cuts and punctures.  


Jerry thinks this part is a bit dramatic....but I know that my friends would want to know all about this adventure...and too, that I am healing nicely.          Lots of love,  Deeds

Sunday, May 8, 2011

How much irony can one man take!!!

So following on my last blog about internet problems here in BKK it is just to ironic that we have a problem in TO and I have to tell you about it.

You know Lena is home from Halifax. While we are away I had dropped all of our communications plans to bare minimum. This included internet coverage.

Now that Lena is back we are into additional charges for downloading. The girl is not going to get by with just 2GB of data loading a month. Hell she blew threw that in three days.
So I had to call Rogers from BKK to upgrade our plan. Why not do it over the internet you ask? Well because your chances of connecting to Rogers.com and have the website work for what you want to do is about a 1 in 42 shot. And since I am on the other side of the clock those odds climb to 1 in 100. Did you know that Rogers actually does a planned outage most evenings from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. EST. Yes they do. I know this because these are good times for me to be on the internet. Do you think Rogers would tell customers that? H E double hockey sticks, no.
So like I said. I have to call to get a plan upgrade, no internet capability, for an Internet Service Provider (more irony) that should make you smile. When I do get through I find out that I cannot upgrade my plan without swapping out my modem. No trouble, Lena is home I can get her to scoot up to Rockwood Mall and get a modem from the store there. Absolutely says the Rogers rep, not trouble. I will put a note to your account. Just present your account number and they will give you a new super duper upgraded modem.
Lena went there today, Sunday. Nope don't have any the guy says. "We found out that they have done some kind of upgrade to the system that requires everyone to get new modems it seems. Cause we run out of them everyday. Maybe get 4 or 5 in and they are gone right away cause everyone is asking for them. We even had to put a note on the door to stop all the people from comin in here and buggin us."
 Hehehee. Ohhh Rogers. How good can you guys get at being bad. Wouldn't it be ironic if they got good at being good?
Nah, too much to ask for.
Life continues on it's own path even when you are half way around the world.
Keep safe and be well
Sawasdee Krup

Saturday, May 7, 2011

It's been too long.

Hi there folks. Sorry. It has been too long between posts. So much of nothing going on that I couldn't find time to write about it!!

Our life is ordinary. Diane works. I don't.
I golf, Diane doesn't.
In between we eat alot of Thai food, sleep. I have taken up drinking. I think I told you that before and today I am actually suffering from having adopted this new pass time. It does fit in well with doing nothing though. Cause when you do drink a little too much guess what you do the next day..................

I have to share this one with you it is still a major cause of laughter around here. Maybe gives you some indication of where our heads are at:

The Supply Guy

An Italian, an Irishman and a Chinese fellow are hired at a construction site.
The foreman points out a huge pile of sand and says to the Italian guy. "You're in charge of sweeping," to the Irishman, "You're in charge of shoveling," and to the Chinese guy, "And you're in charge of supplies." "Now, I have to leave for a little while. I expect you guys to make a dent in that pile."
So the foreman goes away for a couple hours, and when he returns, the pile of sand is untouched. He says to the Italian, "Why didn't you sweep any of it?"
The Italian replies, "I didn't have a broom. You said the Chinese guy was in charge of supplies, but he disappeared and I couldn't find him."
So then the foreman turns to the Irishman and asks why he didn't shovel.
The Irishman replies, "I couldn't get myself a shovel. You left the Chinese guy in charge of supplies, but I couldn't find him."
The foreman is really upset now, and storms off toward the pile of sand looking for the Chinese guy.
Just then, the Chinese guy springs out from behind the pile of sand and yells 'SUPPLIZE!"

Hehehe, we go through our fair share of that here
Some of you may know my life relationship with Rogers Communications Inc (forgive me Beav). I have had ongoing struggles with this elephant of an organization and their world renowned customer service team. (Actually has been much better the last 9 months, wait, stop, I haven't been in the country maybe that's why). Well I have a beauty for you here. The local Internet provider is a company called TOT. They are a state owned. TOT stands for Telephone Organization of Thailand. The company was coporatized in 2002 which I suppose means that they were now to be a viable capitalist company. Profits and all of that. They own the majority of wires you see hanging around in Thailand. And I mean hanging. They don't much care if they are attached to a pole or a tree of just out there. I am 6' 2" and I regularly have to duck under these wires. But more importantly, how the blazes do they know which is which and what for?? Here are some examples of what you see and remember once the top of the pole is full they just start wrapping it lower and lower.


 You can see in this pic here that the wires going on down the soi are getting pretty low past that last motorbike. I always tease Deeds and reach up and grab the wires and then start yelling or making a zzzttzzztttttttt sound and kinda shaking. She doesn't think it that funny, but I laugh for 20 minutes until she finally punches me or calls me a goof! (That makes me stop cause I don't like being a goof, actually I don't think anyone does, especially the way that she says it................ YA GOOOF. Hahahaha. Makes me laugh right now thinking about it.
 So I live and die with the Internet here in BKK. Without it I would be a sloppy pile of goo laying around doing nothing. But with the Internet I am saved. I get to do nothing on the computer, which is way more challenging than nothing without it.
On Wednesday the Internet connection was dropped by our wireless router, it then became intermittent. Connected for 30 minutes or so, dropped and then you had to wait for the signal to reconnect. Very frustrating as you may know. So I called the Customer support team and because I am english speaking I didn't have to wait very long for a connection (there are way fewer of us). That is where the good part of the story ends. The frustration from the inability to communicate or be understood grows very quickly. I had very little success the first call, same with the second. And this frustration isn't one sided. Eventually they put me on hold and came back in a few minutes and said "Oh Mister we do construction work (maintenance on the second call) in your area. Sorry sir problem is this will fix itself sir." When I asked when the work had started in the area or when it was to be completed I got cricket sounds!
An email did get a return call where I think I was successful in convincing a rep that the modem needed to be swapped out.
See, this is the thing. You think you have made your point, especially when you start getting affirmative noises through the phone. But you never know. So we wait. I got a phone call when out this morning. Thought it was a technician going to replace the modem but since we were not home not sure. I tried to get them to leave the modem so that the local apartment techie could install it for me but not sure he understood. I called the tech back but can't tell you what we talked about and whether he is coming back or not. Guess I go through the motions again. Things in Thailand happen slower than you think they will. Even when you think they will be slow...................... takes even longer.

Sorry no great funny stories, that's why I put the supplize joke in, figured you deserved a laugh.
Hey and you may receive a post from Deeds very soon as well cause she has a story to tell about a holiday adventure we went on. Whooooa, this is a great story, you'll love it.
So so long for now and keep well
Sawasdee Krup