Southeast Asia Travel Journal

In a seeming counterpoint to yesterday’s seriousness, today’s post is rather silly. You have been warned.

The great thing about Twitter, aside from connecting you up to all sorts of interesting people, is that it can help generate ideas – for places to go, things to see, blog posts, etc. Note that I didn’t say they were necessarily good ideas.

Take today for example. A thread started up about pet peeves in Bangkok. Now, I generally avoid Thai-bashing, and not just because it’s too easy. A lot of the things that annoy us Westerners are the result of our cultural differences, and isn’t that what makes travel "interesting"?

It all started with a complaint about how people here don’t stand to one side on escalators, so that other people can pass them if needed. This whole "obliviousness" to other people can be a constant source of frustration for foreigners who live here. My favorite are the so-called "PC’s" – Product Consultants – people the big health and beauty manufacturers hire and station in supermarkets to help push their products. The thing is, whenever I encounter them, they’re always just standing around talking to each other, and actually blocking my access to the products.

The discussion led on to complaints about people who get off the escalator and stop, which is a very dangerous thing to do, but I nonetheless encounter it once or twice a week. Then there’s the people who stop and hesitate before getting on the escalator.

Eventually, we got to the heart of the issues: the Skytrain. There was universal disdain for "pole hogs" – those people that wrap themselves around one of the center poles meant for standing passengers. Even worse were those who back onto the pole and seem to have some sort of grip on it with a prehensile monkey butt.

I have to admit that my own biggest pet peeve about the Skytrain are the people, who despite all of the signs telling them not to, stand directly in front of the doors on the platform, rather than to the side so people can get off the train first. This always seems to be the worst at Siam station, where almost everyone gets off one train to rush to another one. Every time I pull into a station on a train and see all those people blocking the exit, the little devil on my shoulder (we all have them, cartoons never lie) keeps urging me to bolt out the door as soon as it opens and use my considerable bulk (by Thai standards) to see how many I could knock down.

The knowledge that I was not alone in my feelings allowed my little devil to take flight, and come up with a "great" idea for a new game: BTS Bowling. It would be played just like regular bowling, except you don’t need a ball or special shoes, and instead of pins, the object would be to knock down as many people on the platform as possible. Scoring would be the same too, so if you knocked down 10 people, it’d be a strike. We’d have to think of a really special prize for the first person to "bowl" a perfect game. Bail money would probably be the most appropriate.

Leagues are forming now.

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Posted by michael under Life in Thailand

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I very rarely get "off topic" here to talk about anything not travel-related, but there’s a first time for everything. I tend to believe that you don’t change the world from the top of a soapbox; you change it by treating those around you with respect, an open heart, and a lot of patience (for me, that last one is the hard part). But as someone who practically lives in "cyberspace", I thought I should comment on why I’m not green.

Just to be clear, I’m not talking about global warming, I’m talking about the other big "green" issue of the day: Iran. The election turmoil in Iran has become the cause célèbre of cyberspace, or more specifically, the "Twitterverse", where people have been turning their profile pictures green or adding green ribbons to them in support of the people of Iran. But you’ll note that my picture remains uncolored and unadorned.

Now, I don’t dispute that there was certainly something very fishy about this election, and I believe the Iranian people have a right to question and peacefully protest something that smells as bad as a shrimp boat with a full hold. The fact that the situation evolved and continues to develop through the use of modern technology certainly means that no matter what happens, the 2009 Iran election aftermath will go down as the first "Internet revolution".

However, there does seem to be some question as to whether the actual end result would be any different without the funny business. Furthermore, you don’t have to read much about the opposition to conclude that Iran probably wouldn’t be any ‘nicer’ where the West was concerned if one of the other candidates had won. But my decision not get on the green bandwagon goes beyond these doubts.

The question for me is, why is Iran so important? Granted there’s a certain geo-political significance to what happens in Iran, but does it really warrant such exclusive attention? What about all the other people in all the other countries denied the right to determine their own futures? For example, there’s another election that hasn’t had much attention these days. There’s no question that Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won the elections in Burma in 1990, but the generals who run the country – and proved their ineptitude by holding the elections in the first place – refused to recognize the will of the people, and have kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for much of the 19 years since then. Now, she’s on trial for "allowing" someone break into her prison-home. There have been a few outcries about this, but the incident seems to have been quickly forgotten and Suu Kyi is still in jail.

A few days ago, two NLD supporters were sentenced to 18 months in prison. Their crime? They prayed for Aung San Suu Kyi. The generals have now decided that simply praying for anyone they don’t like is an "insult to religion" and punishable by imprisonment. This was reported by a few media outlets, but quickly forgotten. No outrage at the lack of religious freedom, nothing.

Do the people of Burma not deserve our support because they’re too poor to buy iPhones and don’t have ready access to the Internet? I’m not trying to convince you that Burma is more important that Iran. They’re both causes worthy of our attention. But it seems too easy to focus on just the one issue everyone else is focused on, and that’s how the Burmas, Darfurs and Tibets of the world get forgotten.

So, even though some people say I look good in green, my profile picture is going to remain the same old natural color it’s always been.

Now it’s time to get off my soapbox and start packing. I’ve got a plane to Manila to catch.

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Posted by michael under Events

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If you’ve ever visited Thailand, you’ve probably noticed them: those mangy mongrels that are practically a fixture of Thai streets. They’re generally referred to as "soi dogs" and they are, for all practical purposes, homeless strays. People often feed them out of feelings that they are doing a good dead. Sometimes they even put collars on the dogs, and I’ve even seen a few sporting old t-shirts in the cool season, but these dogs aren’t pets. If the people who feed them move away or change jobs, the dogs stop getting fed, and what little care they receive almost never extends to health care, which is why you so often see dogs that are in really bad shape.

Saddened by the situation, in 2002 a group of expats in Bangkok got together and formed Soi Dog Rescue, which later became Soi Cats and Dogs, or SCAD for short. The non-profit organization seeks to reduce the numbers and improve the lives of street dogs and cats. You can make donations through the web site, and of course you can adopt a homeless dog or cat that has been rehabilitated.

Down in Phuket, the unrelated Soi Dog Foundation has a similar aim to SCAD. They have dogs and cats available for adoption or sponsorship, and they have what appears to be a successful sterilization program. The foundation is currently trying to raise funds to buy land for a permanent home. You can sponsor the purchase single square meter through PayPal.

Take a look at either web site, or both. I dare you to resist those cute faces!

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Posted by michael under Responsible Travel
Tags: charities • Thailand
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