Brit Life

The seed of this trip was to visit my son Brit who has been teaching English to kindergarteners for a private Canadian school in Bangkok since June of 2010.  He went to Bangkok with his friend Tom who is likewise teaching at the same school. They are living in an 18^th floor penthouse apartment in downtown Bangkok with three other guys. They pay about $800 USD a month for four bedrooms surrounding a HUGE living room (large enough for a ping pong table AND a dance floor). For that cost, they also get weekly maid service, and a great deck around the whole place.

Brit has opted to use the kitchen as his bedroom, paying a little less than the other fellows since the kitchen isn’t air conditioned. His little students can’t pronounce his name (Thai’s have a lot of trouble with consonant blends) – hence he is Mr. Bitch to them. Obviously, this makes his bedroom the ‘Bitchen Kitchen’. He is not looking forward to the hot season in there.

The regular kitchen appliances have been moved to the aforementioned huge living room to make more room for Brit in the kitchen. There’s really no need for a kitchen or appliances other than the fridge for beer as they don’t bother to cook anything. Food is cheap and good down on the street. Brit has definitely lost weight, attributes it to the heat, although it occurs to me that some of the hottest states in the US (think Louisiana) have the highest levels of obesity….

Brit and Tom have bought a motor scooter, a hugely popular way of getting around in Bangkok as it allows them to weave to the front of the notoriously bad Bangkok traffic. Their commute to school is about 15 minutes; Tom drives in the morning, Brit in the afternoon. They do wear helmets (not required by law, but thankfully drilled into their heads by anxious mothers). Brit also wears a long sleeved wool jacket (in this heat!), and a scarf over his face as he is routinely stopped by police if they see him as a non-Thai. Luckily (or not), the police are quite corrupt, and a few baht will make any infraction forgiven.

When not working, the boys explore Bangkok and beyond. They’ve had wonderful times rock climbing and at the beaches. Brit is especially looking forward to trekking in Nepal. They also throw the occasional parties.

Brit and Tom have signed on for a second year of teaching to give them time to finish their explorations of SE Asia. Brit feels he’ll be ready to move on after that, maybe to South America where he would like to do some more climbing. He’s also committed to finishing his college degree. Both say they are missing seasons – there are only two here – Hot and Rainy. I’m sure they are also missing the good beer here in Portland, cheese, their friends and family.

Brit will be home from about the last week in June to the last week in July 2011 to visit friends and family, and hopefully do some relatively high paying work for the catering company he worked for before. He says that his first stop will be Giant Burger in LO. 

We had a wonderful time exploring Bangkok with Brit – eating at some of his favorite haunts, spending time with him and his friends on Koh Lipe (photos on another post), a wonderful remote beach in the south of Thailand. Riding on the back of his motor scooter with him was quite a thrill!

View all photos

Videos:

My ride on the back of Brit's scooter (:30)

Tour of Brit's apartment (3:34)

Tour of lobby of Brit's apartment (:26)

Brit and Tom order dinner in Thai (1:21)

We get no snow all winter...

Then the day before we're to fly out, there's snow. Yikes! But we're doing like good Portland-ers and riding the train to the airport, so there should be no problem getting to our 11:18am flight tomorrow.

We're all packed, critical decisions made about itinerary, clothes, umbrella/no umbrella, and... cameras. I'm reigning in my ego and bowing to a simpler trip by not taking my SLR/Lenses/Batteries/chargers etc, and using our new Canon G12, a mighty fine tricked out point and shoot. I'm sure there will be times that I regret this decision, but, many more times that I'm grateful to be light on my feet, and less of a target for less fortunates. 

I did get myself a dandy new little net book for photo processing/backup and web access. Bumped up the memory, tweaked it here and there. Downloading some movies and books on tape for the long plane rides tomorrow. 

Btw - my Skype handle is redebeccamama if you want to hook up!

Brit is very excited about our arrival, though not as excited it seems as his kindergarten students. They can't quite pronounce his name, so evidently the dialog is going something like this since he told them about us coming - Mr. Bitch! Mr. Bitch! When your mother coming?! Mr. Bitch! Mr. Bitch! Hilarious. I can't wait to meet them - went to the Dollar Store and bought them a bunch of goofy things. Also hit Powell's bookstore where I luckily found a sale on Dr. Seuss - woohoo. Cat in the Hat, Hop on Pop - a plethora of flashbacks to some of our favorites. Also taking some pictures of Mr. Bitch as a little one, I think they'll get a kick out of that...

Early morning tomorrow - good night for now.

Confused daffodils

Driveway

Doubt we'll see any Buddha's over there with snow on them

How it came to be...

I've had Thailand on my list of places to travel for many years - for the exotic-ness, the reputation as a beautiful, friendly place.

Nader, well, not so much...

But my son Brit going there to teach English last June was just the set-up I needed to sweet-talk Nader into a trip to SE Asia. Luckily he is a good sport and agreed! Or maybe it was his need to escape the PNW gloomy cold winter to anyplace warm... Whatever - I'm grateful for it!

Issues to be decided before we go - some people worry about clothes, some about itinerary - we agonize about technology! How many and which cameras to take? Laptop or no laptop? If yes, which one? How to access internet to post blog, do email etc. Crazy non?

We're blessed with lots of great friends who have traveled there, and have been drilling them for ideas on what to see/take/do/not do. So many things to consider! Luckily we'll have plenty of time there - almost a month, and a good friend, Shabbir Bashir there to help us out in addition to Brit.