In late 1993, I began work at the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC) in Washington, D.C. IIEC is (was, really – in August 1999 it was effectively merged out of independent existence) a non-profit organization devoted to promoting “sustainable energy practices” in developing countries, in order to minimize the social and economic costs of energy production, increase general prosperity, and save the environment. But I didn’t join IIEC because I cared about any of that crap. I just wanted the opportunity to work overseas, and IIEC had three other offices in London, Santiago, and Bangkok. I figured that with persistence, I could weasel my way on to international projects, and ultimately an overseas posting.
The bet paid off. By 1995, my growing clout in the organization as well as several international staff defections gave me the opportunity to go overseas. Though my first impulse was to go to Santiago (practice my Spanish), I ruled it out because (1) our project work there wasn’t very interesting; (2) Chile was an infertile ground for our work; and (3) the office director was a chinless, illiterate simpleton who, in terms of virility, made Woody Allen look like Fabio. (My evaluation was later confirmed when the Santiago office was the first office to be shut down.) The Thailand office, on the other hand, had lots of work, lots of regional travel, and an office director who was seemingly well-informed and on the ball. (Later I was to learn that evaluations are not 100% accurate.) So in April 1995, I sold all my stuff and moved to Bangkok. And in June, I began writing these letters from our beautiful offices at the Racquet Club. These are the letters in their original form, though I have inserted a few corrections.
8/21/99
Dear all:
Here is the “status report” I promised you.
WORK
So what is it like? What am I doing here anyway?
OK: The office. The office is, yes, in a racquet club building. Actually, the Club has space all around, so we are not the only unusual tenants. We just happen to overlook the badminton courts, so we hear occasional little grunts, sneaker screeches, “poks” and what-not. Most of them are drowned out by the combination of our three massive air conditioners, or aircons as they are called here.
Actually, the evil landlord is trying to upgrade the facility. In so doing he wants to convert our offices into a room for snooker, which is extremely popular here -- pool is too base for consideration it appears. Actually, at my apartment they have the smallest snooker table you have ever seen, slightly warped. I think I have learned the rules (by watching Star TV), but it requires much more dexterity than I have. In any case, we will move offices (but stay at the same address) in July. Promises to be quite unpleasant.
It is a small office right now. There is Terry Kraft-Oliver, our director, who has been away in Indonesia for some time and is now leaving for a month-long vacation to India. We also have Mem, our office manager, Joe, who is project staff, and Porn, who is our clerical assitant/maid. (Their real first names are Uayporn, Sa-nguansak, and Somporn repsectively, just so you know -- every one in Thailand usually has a one-syllable nickname.) And there is no one else! It is a little weird, because farang (white people) usually run things here (we once had many), which means I am running things. It is a little disconcerting, plus we have so many projects. We are considering hiring someone else very shortly -- probably a Chinese or Filipino.
Here is what I am doing on each of our projects:
1) Promote business partnerships between Thai firms and US firms (joint ventures, etc.);
2) Edit a final report on the investment potential for energy efficient products;
3) Research potential effect on copper consumption that would occur if we promote energy efficient products;
4) Help an action team in the Philippines develop and implement a project to help reduce global warming;
5) Help channel input to an international fund foe energy efficiency to be created by the World Bank;
6) Help on other (now small) projects: support energy efficiency activities at the Asian Development Bank; lead a tour of Thai distributors to the US; support market assessments in the Philippines and Indonesia.
What this means is that I MAY have to go off to the Philippines very soon, say July 7, just for a short trip. I am a little overwhlemed by it all. It used to be that we just sit out here and wrote proposals. Now it is a little different!
My usual schedule is about 8am to 7pm. We have an arduous hour-long lunch, somewhere in there, and I generally spend an hour in any case on e-mail.
LIVING
Where do I live? What’s it like?
I live right now on a month-to-month basis at a little place called House by the Pond -- yes, it is an English name and the manager is some kind of European. [He was actually Australian – I was learning.] They have three buildings of various ages and amenities -- I chose the newest one (4 stories, 5 months old) which even has new building smell. In my apartment, I have a little living room with tables, sofa, a little bedroom with a big soft bed and the best pillows I have encountered in Bangkok, a kitchen with the clothes closet located inside, and a large bathroom--no idea why it is so big. I suppose if I could do calistenics or something. Everyday they make my bed, wash my clothes, clean the floor, and put my things in little piles. All for what is probably $700/month total – more than I was spending in Washington, but anyhow, I got a raise, and food is cheap. The kitchen, by the way, has a microwave, sink, hot plate. I can’t make anything traditionally Daniel (i.e. frozen pizzas, baked chicken, homemade burritos [tortillas few and far between here]) but that is OK. Most important it has a massive air con.
Maybe I will move later; maybe not.
In any case, if you want to reach me, keep using the IIEC address:
IIEC Asia
8 Sukhumvit Soi 49/9
Bangkok 10110 THAILAND
A real place would indeed be a little cheaper, but not as nice, and having a nice place to come home to is critical to my sanity. It is also relatively close to work. Only some 5-10 minutes away on a good (traffic) day (like Sunday); 30 minutes away on a bad (workday) one. If you ever see a map of Bangkok you will see that Sukhumvit is a long, long road, with hundreds of “sois” (lanes) branching off, each with a number (odds on one side, evens on the other). Most sois go far, far, and then dead end. Because of miscellaneous inequities, the “mouth” of Soi 22 (where House by the Pond is) is right across from that of Soi 29 or 31...then I just go to Soi 39 or 49 (they are connected, incredibly) a go a kilometer or two to get to the Racquet Club. Hey, and sois even have old names--49 is Soi Klang, etc., so you can get really confused. Oh, and 49/9 is a “subsoi” which is unnumbered, and thus impossible for newcomers to locate.
I get to work by taxi ($1.60) because otherwise I would have to take a motorcycle taxi to the mouth of Soi 22 ($0.20), wait for a bus, take it to the mouth of soi 49 ($0.24), and then take a tiny little truck (onomatopoetically called a buk-buk, or officially a see-lor -- “four wheels”) to work ($0.60). So it’s a dollar and change three times, and no air con, and be a bloody mess, or take a taxi and cruise to work in reletive comfort, assuming the taxi air con can compete with the morning sun. It is worth it-- I take taxis everywhere.
I am sure you all will be horrified to hear I took a motorcycle taxi in evening rush hour traffic to the city so as to catch a movie on time--or if you are not, you should be. Altogther, it was not a bad ride, but I will avoid them in the future, because not only are they unsafe, but you can’t read on them. Plus, I think my body gets enough of a Daily Lead Supplement already. Why force it? I often take motorcycle taxis up soi 22--a short, 5 baht ride ($0.20). On my soi it is feast (lots of cars not moving) or famine (no cars = no taxis), that’s why.
THAILAND
This part is pieced together from what others have asked, so its organization may be a little strange -- or you may have read it before. Things here smell like incense, mosquito coils, stagnant water, leaded exhaust. They sound like traffic, but not much beeping. They usually look a little dirty or mouldering, covered with mildew or soot or mud. They
[I just cut off there. I suppose I wanted to do the five senses, but I wasn’t often going around popping bits of my local environment in my mouth to have a taste, nor was I big on touching everything.]
FOOD
Food is really, really good. Thais eat everything except goat and rabbit. Food is also very cheap. Very rare for me to spend $10 at a restaurant. I can get away with spending $1.20, or less, by eating on the street, or at a local “night market” (= massive agglomeration of push carts that sell everything). So far no intestinal difficulties, either!
WEATHER
I arrived in late summer for Bangkok. It now being the start of the rainy season, it has cooled down a little weensy bit since then (80s, not 90s). Apparently there is not a day that IIEC cannot use aircons, and I can believe it. There will be “winter” in December -- temperatures in 70s. Hasn’t rained too much yet, but when it does, it tends to flood everything. Doesn’t affect me, but it does my clothes.
CLOTHES
When I first arrived, none of my clothes were adequate to the task of shielding me from the elements without overheating me. And forget poly-cotton blends. There are plenty of clothes here, but the colors are really weird. I arrived with only maybe one to three climate-appropriate outfits, depending on how you count them. Now I just bought a bunch of some linen pants at the local Japanese department store -- they are quite nice, especially because I do not have to iron them (ie, someone else does!)
Natives wear Western style clothes to excess…ties, jackets etc. We wilt. I first wore a tie about three weeks ago to meet a big shot, Mechai, AKA “Mr. Condom.” who runs a huge population and development center here.
LANGUAGE
My Thai still isn’t very good, but I can read a little, and can get where I need to go. In central Bangkok, they write in English everywhere, so no problem. My keyboard has Thai all over it though. Thai does have too many characters: 44 consonants, 44 vowels/dipthongs.
TRAVELING
So far I have been to Wat Pho (yes, big reclining Buddha), Wat Arun, Wat Pra Kaew and Grand Palace, and Wat Mahatat. I have also travelled up the Chao Phraya River (or Liver, as they say here) on ferry boats and express boats, but not the long-tail boats, which are pretty wild, since they propel themselves with a huge engine with the drive shaft attached to a propeller. The Liver is brown; the klongs (canals) are dirty gray, like most any natural water we get to see.
CITY LIFE
Bangkok is THE big city. I think 70% of Thailand’s urban population is here. And people are indeed pretty young. It ain’t Sarasota. They are constantly building new structures everywhere. You can’t go anywhere without hearing someone hammering away. The biggest danger is traffic, not crime.
Yes, prostitution is everywhere in many, many forms. A business man took us to his fairly upscale club, with a big karaoke bar, singing hall, and an upstairs area for men only. (We got tossed back down because Sabrina, a colleague who has since gone to the Europe office, was female.) Lots of women in cocktail dresses, but none of them wives. (Actually, they can go upstairs.) In fact, there seems to be yet another story above that one, with red curtained windows... who knows? I must admit though -- I sang Karaoke. House of the Rising Sun is the best I can do with my voice.
I don’t haggle too much, since they have Westernized to some extent. But I may be stupid. My bargaining tactic is: decide price I like, don’t budge. Example: Me: “How much?” Vendor: “180.” Me: “100.” Vendor: “150.” Me: “100.” Vendor shakes head. I walk away. Vendor screams at me something like hey hey hey. I come back, pay 100. (Based on initial price offer, I should probably pay 80). Generally I only get to bargain on t-shirts and tuk-tuks (three wheeled taxis).
RELIGION
Even the racquet club has a spirit house, but our office does not have the monk’s blessing. So maybe we are cursed! I have wai-ed (put hands together in a repsectful praying position) the Emerald Buddha and the Four-headed Brahmin God at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, a bustlling shrine in the center of town. You can get great big promises fulfilled by praying to that God. I have not, however, bought incense sticks, a candle, or a puang malai (a weird little wreath of flowers) to hang on the shrine. Maybe later...
POLITICS
The political turmoil has not made one whit of difference to me, or to anyone I see on the street, but what do I know? I don’t speak Thai--I am an outsider. But there are political posters on everything.
Actually, I am wrong. The change in government means the Energy Conservation Act, which is of major importance to us, will be delayed in its implementation by another few months (it was due to start in July. Now, who knows?). The election is on July 3.
REACHING ME
If you haven’t noticed, we have a new mail address:
Save it for future reference. All on-line services should be able to use it.
Enough ! This is too much to read.
Take care,
Daniel