A BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

We've just concluded a weekend-long celebration for Alex's seventh birthday, the bulk of which was auspiciously held on 07/07/07 (7 July 2007).

After returning home from work at mid-day on Saturday (yes, I do work six days a week at my school), I spent much of the afternoon hanging out with our son on the ground floor of our shophouse (something I don't often get to do).  We played some games and then watched a couple of DVD's (disc one of U2's ZooTV Live From Sydney and a new Bangkok concert video from Bird Tongchai which started with a lengthy medley of 1970s disco songs).  The little three-year-old girl from down the road came for a visit and we had to entertain her to make sure she didn't get into too much mischief; my nickname for her is "Grabby" as she wants to grab just about anything that's not nailed down.

Tim and La prepared various snacks for the party including some awesome onion rings and buffalo wings.  I ate my fill before many guests had arrived.  As each person came and gave Alex a present he'd immediately grab it and tear open the paper.  We've been trying to teach him that he needs to say "thank you" when accepting gifts but he continues to be rude in this manner.  (In fact, he exhibits a total lack of respect to virtually everyone — totally alien behavior in the Thai culture — and it has earned my wife and I much embarrassment, not to mention some admonishments from his school.  Nothing we do or say to him seems to help...)  I managed to get Tim over to watch him open a few presents but it wasn't easy.  However, when our Dutch neighbor Franz gave him a very cool car track set late in the evening Alex was all smiles and "thank yous" for a change.  Everytime our son opened a present "Grabby" immediately tried to wrench the gift from Alex's hands.  He soon learned to spirit the toys away before she could get her mits on them.

I thought the highlight of the presents would be when we presented Alex with his new (first) TV and DVD player.  He'd been asking for his own TV since we moved into our new house.  I finally caved and told my wife perhaps we could do this, it being his first birthday since moving in with us (and, I have since found out, his first-ever birthday party!).  I had in mind a 14-inch television and one of those mini DVD players to hook up to it.  A visit to Makro with their extremely low prices put an end to that plan and we ended up purchasing a 25-inch set (Katana brand) for a bit over 2000 baht (USD $60 or so).  I kind of regret that decision now because I still have to haul it up three flights of stairs to Alex's bedroom.  Anyway, he hardly glanced at the TV when La and I carried it in (we'd been hiding it at the restaurant two doors down) being more focused on a set of plastic dominoes someone had given him.

A very nice surprise was that many of the girls (and one boy) in my P.3 class at school had made birthday cards to give to Alex.  He seemed pleased to think that he has several potential little girlfriends over there...

Finally, it was time for cake and ice cream.  Tim had purchased a special Spider Man cake at the bakery just off of Chalong Circle (Spidey having supplanted Ultraman as Alex's favorite character).  It had kind of a spice cake flavor underneath the chocolate.  Tasty.  I dished out the vanilla ice cream (Thai ice cream tastes better than any other I've had before) while my wife sliced the cake.  Dtom arrived around this time and soon had the karaoke playing at ear-splitting volume (she's the biggest abuser of our hospitality and tends to argue with me when I ask her to turn something down, etc.; I was REALLY glad when she got a job at a massage parlor in Patong and began living at that shop so we hardly see her anymore).

I played with Alex on the floor for a while (putting together his new car track and showing how to play dominoes) before an upset stomach got the best of me and I retreated upstairs.  I have no idea how long the party continued after I left but I was very surprised this morning to see that the downstairs had been (more or less) cleaned.

Much of this morning was rainy (and with more of the terrible gusts of wind we've been experiencing lately) so our planned outing to the zoo had to be scrapped.  But in the afternoon we headed out to Central Festival in order to catch the "Transformers" movie (and getting soaked by a rain shower en route).  We don't get out to the movies very often (our last time was the first installment of "King Naresuan" back in January) so it's a real treat to go.  I always enjoy being able to pick our seats on the computer screen and they always give you a free gift with your tickets ("Transformers" magnets this time).  We had a bit of time to browse at the huge B2S book shop before the movie began and I fell in love with the lavishly-illustrated Thailand:  A Traveller's Companion but I felt it was a bit too pricey at 895 baht.  I did hint to my wife that it would make a lovely anniversary present (our first is coming up on August 2nd).

After the movie, I treated Alex and Tim to a dinner at Pizza Hut.  We really splurged (spending 800 baht); I had a Meat Supreme personal pan pizza, Tim had lasagna, and Alex ordered a medium-sized pizza with a cheese-sausage crust (it looks disgusting but apparently it's very popular here to have strange meats in your pizza crusts) and crab with pineapple toppings.  We shared an order of barbecue spare ribs (really, the best thing I've eaten all week) and drank some really nice apple shakes.

It was a really nice way to end a great birthday weekend.  I feel like I've gained a few pounds this weekend (desperately needed as I've lost all sorts of weight climbing four flights of stairs throughout the school days not to mention three flights every night and every morning at home).  After our anniversary on August second, the next gift-giving holiday is Mother's Day (coinciding with HM the Queen's birthday) which is actually a Friday through Monday affair.  And then I suppose it's Thanksgiving (we'll give a turkey with gravy dinner another try) and on to my birthday, HM the King's birthday (AKA Father's Day), and Christmas...

ALEX'S FIRST DAYS AT SCHOOL

Alexander began attending summer school at Wittaya Sathid School in Phuket Town yesterday.  Remarkably, we didn't have any problems waking him up at 6:30 in the morning and he shed a lot less tears than I suspected (this is a kid that cries up a storm when his mama leaves his sight for longer than five minutes or so).  I didn't ride along when my wife took him to school but she reported that Alex was very respectful to his teacher upon meeting him, complete with the proper wai and a polite "Sawasdee khap" (he'd actually been rejected by several schools because he was rude during the interview process).

Upon returning home, our son reported that he'd made several new friends (with names like "Cartoon" and "Watermelon") and that they'd read a story, sang some songs, and had a nap.  Since he didn't have any homework I had Alex begin a daily journal in which I want him to write what he learns/does each day at school.  I also want him to include one thing he enjoys the most each day.  By beginning the journal on the first day I figure it will get him into the habit of doing "homework" before he can play or watch television at home each afternoon.  It's also a useful method for Tim and I to track his progress (right now, he can't even write so he dictates what he wants my wife to write) and shows him that we are interested in his days at school (away from us).  After each sentence that Tim wrote, I asked her to translate it for me.

This morning, it was a bit more difficult to get Alexander out of bed and into the shower.  We purchased some fried chicken at a roadside vendor (amidst my protests that this wasn't a good thing to eat for breakfast) and Alex ate in the sidecar during the 30-minute ride to school.

Here are some photos from yesterday and this morning:

eating a "proper" breakfast before leaving for school yesterday


showing papa his King Naresuan notebook


checking his brand-new backpack


searching for mama's keys (she can never find them whenever we need to go somewhere; I plan to buy a key peg-board for the new house)


realizing that mama can't stay with him at school


saying "goodbye" to papa


climbing into the sidecar for the ride to school


running late on the second day, Alex ate a fried chicken breakfast while Tim sped down the roads to school


going off to class but checking to see that we haven't left yet


Alex's school

PHOTOS: FROM BANGKOK TO KUALA LUMPUR

I've pretty lazy about posting photos here the past couple of weeks; but I suppose I can redeem myself a bit by noting that in the same time I've uploaded five new albums (with a total of 200 pictures, up through July 24, 2006) to my Webshots pages.  I think I dread writing the captions more than anything else...

Anyway, I'll try to play catch-up here.  The last photos I shared on Goodnight Phuket were of the Eric Clapton concert in Bangkok on January 15th...




Following an early morning trip to the U.S. Embassy on the 16th (I actually waited an hour outside the WRONG embassy — the Vietnamese — due to operator error), my wife and I checked out of our Sukhumvit 25 guesthouse and took a taxi to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport, opened at the end of September.  It was opened to much fanfare and certainly looks pretty on the surface.  However, through poor planning and many other mistakes the runways are now riddled with cracks as it sinks back into the soggy ground (the original name for the site was "Cobra Swamp"); pilots are becoming increasingly fearful of landing there and flights were recently rerouted to a former U.S. Air Force B-52 base outside of Pattaya while workers attempted to repair some of the cracks and planes began running out of fuel while waiting to land!  A couple of days ago, the Ministry of Transport submitted a proposal to reopen the old Don Mueang Airport for domestic flights not requiring international connections.


Alexander, modelling new haircut and Tim's pink shades.  Looks a bit like Elvis...



Tim and I had a nice evening out on the 22nd, first having dinner at Coconut Resort — surprising Nadia on one of her last night's working there.  We'd been planning to eat there for quite some time but just never found ourself nearby when hungry.  I had a fairly good spaghetti Bolognaise and an excellent caramel brownie for dessert.  A bit expensive but worth it.  We then visited Tim's friend Puk at Papaya Pok-Pok on Rat-U-Thit (we used to frequent it with the TEFL gang when it was known as Fuzzy's back in September/October) before picking Nadia up after work.  Nid soon joined us (dropped off by Opat — hadn't seen him in quite some time but he couldn't go out with us).  Heading down to Bangla Road we actually ran into Bob (my TEFL instructor) on one of the side soi's.  Surprised to see us, he called Nid, Tim, and Nadia "Mark's Angels" (it did look odd for me to be the only guy among three such attractive ladies!).  Bob's currently teaching mathematics at the highly-regarded Satree Phuket School.  After sharing a couple of drinks with Bob and his friend, we left them and headed into the new Club Erotica.  I think the girls enjoyed the dancers more than I did as I wasn't sure if I should look or not!  Our final stop was the little bar just outside of Tiger Disco on the second level.  There was a truly excellent Thai cover band there (the first two songs were "Sunshine Of Your Love" and "Sweet Home Chicago", the latter of which got me up on the dance floor much to the amusement of my "angels").  The party was still going strong when Tim and I made our farewells and began the drive home around 4:30 in the morning.


Mother and son are seen here practicing writing their A,B, C's.  I have them work on a different letter each day, writing both the large and small letters repeatedly and giving them a few vocabulary words as well.




On the 25th, our little family made our way to the westernmost part of Rawai Beach, close to where the promontory curves southward to meet up with Promthep Cape.  There are plenty of longtail boats here, mostly of the fisherman type rather than for tourists.  Also, an above-average number of abandoned trawlers litter part of the beach (I'm unsure if these are from the tsunami but Tim thinks they are; I was under the impression that there was only a small tidal surge here rather than the large waves of the west coast).  The boat in the middle photo had a sign saying it was for sale for 40,000 baht — that's a bit more than USD $1,000 — a bargain if you ignore the rather large breach in the starboard hull.



I always enjoy visiting Laem Promthep, the southernmost point of Phuket Island.  Usually, we come here just before sunset but on this day we arrived at noontime.  I'd hoped that the lighthouse would be open but it's still closed for renovation.  The statue honors Admiral His Royal Highness Prince Abhakara Kiartiwonges who, at age 13 in 1893 became the first Thai prince to become a cadet at England's Royal Naval Academy.  He later established the Royal Thai Navy, Royal Thai Naval Academy, and the Naval Engineering School.  He also captained the ship which took His Royal Highness King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) on his first trip to Europe.


Tim and Alexander reading together at Laem Promthep.






My second favorite thing about Laem Promthep (after the lighthouse and naval artifacts) is the shrine with it's numerous elephant talismans.  I've never received a satisfactory explanation as to why elephants are offered but the shrine is surrounded by hundreds of them, from very simple and plain ones to extremely beautifully-painted ornate ones.  There's even the odd horse mixed in here and there.  Alexander walked around the shrine with me, adjusting any of the elephants he found that had fallen over.


A view of the western side of the Cape.





A study of Alexander's constantly-changing facial expressions/moods.  These eight photos were all shot within a single minute...



I think Alexander might just be a natural photographer.  He grabbed my camera (at my great displeasure — I was worried he'd drop it) but came up with some really nice shots — another 50 or so of the elephants plus a few good ones of your's truly...


Father and son


An Alexander self-portrait; I quite like this one...




The night before I left for Malaysia, our neighbors Franz and Pen hosted a party to celebrate their legal marriage.  Nadia, Nid, and Opat were on hand and I got to meet our new neighbors from across the street — Fabio, Nadier, and Isabella of Italy.  Nadier introduced me to grappa; it was okay going down but I paid the price the following morning!  Needless to say, the drive to the airport (thankfully provided by Nid in her truck as I don't think I would have survived the ride on the sidecar!) and flight to Kuala Lumpur weren't as enjoyable as they should have been.





Of the three very modern SE Asian airports I've visited recently (Changi in Singapore, Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok, and KLIA), I think I like the Main Terminal in Kuala Lumpur the best.  Or, I should say, outside of Kuala Lumpur as it's some 80km from the city's center!  My flight on Thai Air Asia landed at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (itself a 20km drive from the Main Terminal) and I was immediately beseiged by several taxi touts.  I shrugged them off by heading into a currency exchange bank but they actually seemed more agressive than the taxi mafia in either Bangkok or Phuket!  When I tried to head to the busses after getting my Malaysian money, one driver tried to convince me the bus would take too long and would require me to change several times!  Actually, I knew to head for the big green bus marked KLIA; it costs 1.50 RM and takes 15 minutes to travel to the bus station at the main airport.  This terminal is huge and very clean and quiet.  It never seemed very noisy or crowded and I enjoyed my night there.  I had dinner at the Burger King on the third level and spent some time exploring the shops on the fifth.  The best part of the terminal is that there are a number of long padded benches without armrests — perfect for stretching out and sleeping on.  I found an excellent spot in the aircraft viewing area, overlooking the Malaysian Airlines gates, where I slept until just after midnight.  However, it seemed like the air-conditioning had been turned off so I decided to walk to the McDonald's to get a McFlurry.  Unfortunately, upon returning a red chord had been stretched across the hallway leading to the viewing area for nightly cleaning.  No problems; I found a different spot near the escalators leading to the international departure lounges.  I slept here until around five in the morning.  I then got cleaned up and changed in one of the clean restrooms and headed off on my planned morning adventure...




Since my time in Malaysia was fairly short and I didn't want to spent a lot of cash, I decided my only real sightseeing would be to the Petronas Towers.  There are several options for travelling the great distance between the airport and the city but I chose KLIA Ekspres — the high-speed train that whisks passengers the 80km to KL Sentral Station in just 28 minutes.  It's a bit pricey at 35RM (around USD $12) but it was kind of cool.  I arrived at the massive central transportation station in the city very early (6:15) and it took a bit of wandering but I finally found a subway that would take me to KLCC beneath the Petronas Towers.  That station is actually underneath a huge six-storey underground shopping center and I had some difficulty finding the way out (not too many people to follow that early in the morning).  Once I got outside, I thought initially that I was at the wrong place as I thought the towers would be right in front of me. &nbps;However, I turned around to go back inside and found the twin towers looming high above me.  I wandered around shooting a few photos in the predawn light before going inside to find the ticket office.






They give out only 1200 free tickets each day for the trip up to the Sky Bridge, connecting the towers at Levels 41 and 42 — the highest that members of the public are allowed to go.  I had read that you should arrive around eight o'clock in order to secure one of the tickets but when I got there at seven there was already 10 or 15 people in line.  When the office opened at 8:30, there were perhaps another two or three hundred people behind me!  After receiving the free ticket you get to check out a number of interactive displays and watch a movie about the construction of the towers.  I was in the first group going up at nine; they take about 20 people at a time in the high-speed elevator and you're given about 10 minutes to take photographs from the lower level (41) of the Sky Bridge.  It was pretty cool — I'm a big fan of tall buildings — but I wish they had an observation floor higher up.  I've been much higher in the Empire State Building (perhaps even the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in London) and slept higher at Bangkok's Baiyoke Hotel.  The towers certainly look nice...  Next time, I'd like to check out the park and lake at the base — there's a first-class aquarium nearby as well.


High-speed KLIA Ekspres trains on the way back to the airport



Kuala Lumpur International Airport is way out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by jungle.  It's really quite a beautiful place.



While standing on the tarmac of the Low Cost Carrier Terminal, I was struck by how easy it would be to get on wrong plane.  Several different flights would board at the same time with passengers and crew members walking all over the place.  When we walked to our plane, I paused to take a photo and lost sight of fellow passengers I recognized.  It was only after asking one of the ground crew that I was directed to the correct aircraft.  Once they take your boarding pass at the terminal, it is not checked again when you board the plane...


Goodbye, Kuala Lumpur International Airport.  I might be back soon (especially with Thai Air Asia's low prices...).