Monday Sep 04, 2006
Trip Start
May 01, 2002
1
4
64
Trip End
May 01, 2009
Cha-am, Thailand
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
i was surprised to find that the editorial listed iranians among thailand's refugees. it said that the brutality of the iranian government was driving their citizens to seek political asylum in thailand. i have lived in thailand for about five years and i have never seen or heard of iranian refugees. besides, what about the iranian government makes them brutal? and even if they were brutes, why would the victims flock to thailand, a country known for police brutality? for a sample of police brutality in thailand, see the perspective section of sunday's bangkok post.
there is a guy in cha-am who makes a big pot of chicken biriyani every morning and brings it out to the sidewalk (on narathip road across from the post office) along with his family and they stand there all afternoon dishing out biriyani (khao mok gkai in thai) in styrofoam boxes until it's all gone. i understand that they are thai muslims. "khon isselaam" in thai. anyway, the biriyani is absolutely delicious and it's only 30 baht (about 80 cents). if you want it spicy, and i do, they will give you a small pouch of crushed green chile peppers. be careful as these peppers are hot and i mean hot. i pick up a can of cold beer chang and ride my bike to the beach where plenty of cool and breezy spots are available for power lunching on weekdays.
it's a different story on weekends of course. bangkokians are here in hordes for their weekend on the beach. the beach is best avoided during that time. what's worse is that they leave a mountain of trash. i am not complaining. without these boors the economy in cha-am would just collapse. we need them and their money. in between weekends we take back the beach. all but deserted, it is a peaceful esplanade for locals to enjoy. the best things in life are free.
the roofers came and looked at the roof. it leaks. they can fix it. ten thousand baht ought to do it. and if it still leaks it might take yet another ten thousand. so i called my friend mark. he is german. he has technology and can-do know-how in his genes and in his blood. he said that this kind of thai tiled roof will always leak if there is wind associated with rain. the problem is that there is not enough overlap of the tiles and the tiles are not sufficiently lipped. they work as long as the rain comes straight down but if there is a wind the water will find a way into your home through the spaces between the tiles.
the best we can do in this case is to construct a drainage system on top of the ceiling to drain the leakage out to the porch. mark went to the hardware store and purchased a few things for about 1000 baht and constructed the drainage system. end of story. thank you mark. germany's loss is our gain.
