On May 3 I arrived in Bangkok and found my way to my next gracious hosts, Paula and Albert. Not only did I have a beautiful room to stay in but Albert happens to be a chef so I ate some pretty scrumptious meals! I also enjoyed the company of KK the cat, who hails from Indonesia. I developed an allergy to cats a few years ago so tried to keep my distance. However, my love of animals overtook my need to stay sneeze free and before long I was petting and holding KK. My new ‘temporary’ home was in Dusit, a bus ride to the fairly new above ground train but a nice quiet retreat (complete with pool!). For the two weeks I stayed with Paula and Albert I set up informational interviews with many different NGOs, cold calling some to get a meeting, but also making a fair amount of connections through friends and former-colleagues (Thank You!!!). I also managed to make it to a Spanish Meetup (not even Asia can stop me from speaking Spanish!) and a Fair Trade show with artisans from all over the country.
I never knew this but Bangkok is a huge hub for all kinds of designers. Which is ironic because in addition to my interest in refugees, I have become a bit obsessed with the idea of sustainable design/reducing waste/simple living. Finding myself in a city that was very design focused started to make me question whether the universe was trying to tell me something. Alas, it must have been speaking in Thai because I didn’t understand the exact message. However this fact has been stored away in my brain for future endeavors.
To me Bangkok is Asian NY. Good public transportation, so busy, really fashionable folks, just lacking the attitude. You can find anything you want in the city, and it is possible to forget you are not in the US anymore. In my interviews many have mentioned what a coveted post this is for the NGO/UN crowd. You can even get by without learning Thai. In my case, I am waiting for more permanence before attempting to learn more than the essential ‘thank you’ and ‘not spicy’. This realization of how ‘posh’ the post is was also a bit disconcerting, as I wasn’t really going for that intentionally. I know I’ll have to pay my dues in a more ‘rustic’ area, to put it lightly, at some point soon.
Ironically, some folks I haven’t seen in ages happened to also be in BKK. Jess is a former colleague from my Community Service-Learning days at JMU whose husband was posted here. The other, Michelle, is a former apartment-mate from Ibarra, Ecuador! Michelle was nice enough to put me up in BKK for a few days as well, and give me the low-down on the NGO/UN scene as well as the ‘best soi** (street) food in the city’ scene. If you ever see Thousand Year Old Eggs on the menu you must order them. The ones below are with crunchy basil leaves. Droooooll….
**Soi is pronounced soy. When I first arrived I heard everyone talking about ‘soi dogs’ and just thought that there must be a lot of vegetarians here. Turns out there are actually a lot of street dogs.
So, Bangkok was pretty serious. Lots of running around to interviews, getting rejected a lot (some of those cold-calls never called back!), and getting the low-down on the job scene here. I did make it to the infamous Khao San road which is a major tourist spot. However, all you can really do is eat and buy stuff. Since I was on a budget and anxious to do other things a few hours was enough. Around the end of week 2 I decided that my best bet for finding some kind of activity (paid or unpaid) to occupy me while I continued to look for work was to head north to Mae Sot. Mae Sot is a few miles from the Burma border and near the largest refugee camp in Thailand. I took the night bus and arrived Sunday morning…
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