news; yul brynner hospital

• con had surgery yesterday. the doctors seemed satisfied. she came out of it nauseous and dizzy, but her ankle seems oddly better (i almost fainted looking at it. i've been looking at it for a week. guess the shock/adrenaline is wearing off). starting physical therapy on monday... just like when she started physical therapy last monday. square one.
  

• i hate, hate it when she's in surgery.
  

• this made me more sad than any of the other deaths in bangkok recently. wrong?

• somchai's days are numbered. i feel a little sad for the guy. wrong? (this is all very confusing). you always remember your first head of state:

• some station ran a news story about constance's pink flip flops yesterday morning, after doing a series of tests on them to prove that it was in fact explosive chinese teargas that caused all this (the u.s. teargas was soft and pleasant-seeming, not unlike being pelted with a basket of warm muffins. those WTO protesters have it easy). neither con nor i cared enough to get up at 6:30 am to watch.

• the police showed up today with sudden interest, leading me to believe that the news story was in fact broadcast, despite our indifference. the police chief apologized. con's mom's hotel will probably be comped.
  

• our hospital (phramongkutklao) is translated in english to (king mongkut hospital), which, therefore, means our hospital was named after the king from the king and i. his old palace is out back, next to the waffle stand.
  

• while waiting for pictures to load right now, i am running sprints across the roof of said hospital. there's a breeze, a lightning storm, a strong wifi signal and a 360 view of the city. i'm not wearing pants, and the thai government owes me at least this much.
  

• this is a picture of me at the protests that tuesday:

protest day

common enemies unite nations, or "two buddhist nations warring over a hindu temple."

yeesh. thailand's on a roll.

better news: happy birthday sam! best african brother i've ever had.

woo privacy

refreshing huh. i feel like we should all walk around my blog naked.

um.. thanks for cooperating. this is a very confusing time, and not easy to watch ourselves slowly lose control of this story. had a few anonymous comments on this blog.. nothing really threatening.. just mildly hostile, that made me rethink the reality of how this all might be perceived here in thailand.

here's an explanation i just wrote in an email to some:

I've decided to make my blog (philliporchard.blogspot.com) invitation-only for a bit. I'd like to write frankly about what happened in Bangkok last week, without concern for our safety. I am not expecting problems as is, but the situation here is pretty charged with a lot of anger on all sides. We want to be able to talk about it with friends and family back home, without getting involved politically here. Additionally, the government (embarrassed) is paying for all of Constance's health care, and we don't want the level of care to erode in any way.

Con's blog will remain open to all at congraced.blogspot.com

news.

articles that help clarify things:

1) what the hell was in those tear gas canisters

2) who might be responsible for parts this

3) god save the anteaters.

4) and.. an excellent call against violence (and against us vs. them thinking)

all sorts of rumors about what happened, and very few people are taking enough responsibility from either side.

two cops were shot that tuesday. another run over by a car and still another stabbed to death with a flag pole. the police, for their part, were quite obviously using illegal tear gas and/or using the tear gas grenades improperly, and people died. by nightfall, the police were probably skiddish and angry. the PAD was skiddish and inflamed. they met in front of the police headquarters (we didn't realize this at the time), and the clash was inevitable. we took a wrong turn, got too curious and too close.

then there's rumors about plain-clothed police infiltrating the protesters and then using illegal weapons (ping pong bombs?), giving the police/government just cause to crackdown and reclaim government house. then there's rumors about PAD members exploding stun grenades within its own ranks to whip up anti-government sentiment. then still more about insurgents from the south joining in and creating chaos, destabilizing what should've been a more or less peaceful demonstration. and i still don't know what was behind this car bomb:

(credit: constance)

most are surely just rumors, but that's a glimpse of the polarizing confusion thai people are facing.

so.. we're staying out of it as much as we can. we are not thai and can only pretend to understand politics here to a very limited degree. i don't know who is responsible, or what really happened. i don't know how much prime minister somchai was involved, what the PAD did to provoke things, or if the police/government knew the teargas would be so damaging.. and only sort of care.

but there is no doubt that my wife was hit by some sort of explosive tear gas, and that it was being fired directly at groups of people. for two minutes we watched sparking projectiles fly into the crowds. gas choked us when she was hit, and her legs prove the damage.

we just want those responsible to acknowledge blame to prevent further tragedies. we love thailand and want to see it thrive. this fighting is so stupid.

last tuesday.

so.. might as well start heavy:

when the teargas bombs started, con and i both had the presence of mind of pull out our cameras. con had the extra presence of mind to use video. it was that kind of non-panicky ah crap we should quit poking the alligator with a stick kind of feeling. here's what it looked like before it got really nasty, about a minute and a half before my wife of four months got hit by a bomb.

this video is a bit chilling. i probably shouldn't post it... but here's reality:



and it just got worse from there. i sigh a lot these days.

notes on blogging.

• if i keep this about facts, about the story, about history and politics and current events and faith and logic, then i don't have to deal with my ominous undercurrent of panic and regret. if i appear callous, overeager, bored, bitter, exhausted, confused or deceivingly healed, bear with me — i probably am.

• this blog is my own opinion, not necessarily reflective of education for life (con's foundation), or even my wife, whose recollection and opinions concerning what happened on tuesday, october 9, might differ wildly. she's the one still bleeding. not me.

• we wish to remain uninvolved with thai politics, despite our presence at the pad protest. we do not align ourselves with any side. we were there simply as observers, as writers, as expats in thailand seeking a greater understanding of our new home.

• members of government or the media who wish to speak with us may contact me at phillip.orchard@gmail.com.

sunday.

con's doing better, little by little. can't stand or walk. but can slink along the wall with only a little bit of help. she's discouraged, but i call it progress. "marry a girl that can slink," they always said. done.

our hospital is huge and modern. here's the view from our room. this is what you get when you have an embarrassed government behind your healthcare:


and here's from the roof, where i get the best wifi signal, where i'm sitting now, and where i listened to texas/ou last night (what a delightful distraction that turned into):


and as far as we can tell con is getting good care. the language barrier is maddening, but we feel like we're in the best situation we could be, considering. we've felt that way since moments after con got hit, when those two heroes picked her up and ran.

in addition to healing, please pray for wisdom and discernment. we have a bunch of legal/circumstantial/political decisions to make.

also... tomorrow (monday) morning, a march on the police headquarters is planned (same spot where we got caught). we can see the area from our hospital room. the anticipation of seeing teargas is making me sick.

the violence in all this is so stupid. please pray against it.

last tuesday

update

hey everyone. we're ok. con's hurting, but we're ok.

i'll post more soon when i find better wifi access. i don't what else to do but write about all this. for now.. read con's account here.

for news accounts of what was happening that day, read coverage from the nation and the bangkok post.

protests; tear gas.

big news in bangkok today:

woke up this morning to reports that the police had tear-gassed the ongoing protests that led to last month's state of emergency. our hotel is only two or three blocks away from the protests so... figured i might as well go meddle.

heard several blasts while walking there. turns out this is what happened.

spent the day snooping around with eyes stinging and snapping pictures. will post those soon.

debate.

way too tight restrictions on the debate tomorrow, as agreed to by both candidates. pretty lame, in my opinion. anyone can stand there and rattle off talking points. it's when pressed for further detail when you get to see a candidate really think.

doesn't really help or hurt either candidate (a la palin v biden), as both are pretty equally mediocre debaters and pretty bad in a sound bite news culture. hurts the debate overall, though.

bangkok.

tuk tuk.

no politics when u nude.

sunset worship.


i care about the russian river. amazing. they love northern california here too. here's another neat picture from the russian river (also known as the day lorne owed me 200 ad clicks):

blame the media..

.. taken to a whole new level. we've seen this guy's signs everywhere here.

movie update: our movie theater, where we saw bangkok dangerous, was featured in bangkok dangerous. meta! probably the best movie of the year.

bangkok; strangerous

in bangkok, at a starbucks, looking at a 7-11 and a pizza hut, just around the corner from an outback steakhouse. it looks like seattle.

came to bangkok for meetings, etc. but really came for the food. have had cheese with every meal. spent more money on food and coffee today alone than a week in phayao.

bus to bangkok was double-decker, had a stewardess, and zohan dubbed in thai. we still got the gist. we would not have boarded such a bus in india.

missed paul banks' show in austin last night. hate missing paul banks shows. go see paul banks and the carousels next weekend (possibly) at mohawk in austin.

here are hurricane ike pictures. strange how distant and unreal it seemed from here. concerning the following picture of haiti (where we visited last summer, and found to be almost hauntingly poor)... constance: "i wouldn't want to be in haiti during a light drizzle."


related, im pretty sure our hotel was nearly swept away in a flash flood last night.

seriously. who else is waiting anxiously to illegally download from a foreign country next week's project runway finale.

going to see bangkok dangerous tonight. IN BANGKOK. irony is thick thick thick. delicious.

here's a neat picture of my mother in oregon. happy anniversary last week!

culture; culture

here's something sad:

At least 177 people have been killed in a stampede at a temple in the popular tourist city of Jodhpur in north India, the third such tragedy to hit the country in a matter of months.

The disaster happened early this morning as thousands of devotees gathered to mark the start of the nine-day Navaratr festival at the Chamunda Devi temple at the top of the Mehrangarh fort, in the state of Rajasthan.

Several hundred people were injured after being trampled to the ground.

what's more sad is that it was the fourth such stampede this year. and what's perhaps most sad is that after the third, in which 145 people were trampled to death (which took place very near where we went in june), constance and i realized that we simply weren't surprised. we just felt like this sort of thing was on the verge of happening in 15 different times while there. con witnessed it to a small degree on this bridge in rishikesh:


a minute later the rain poured, the bridge swayed, and people on motorcycles started running over old ladies.

loved india. im pretty sure it's the most interesting country in the world. met wonderful people. hate to make generalizations. i feel like i have a reasonable understanding of common humanity in general, but hate to infer that i know indian culture on any sort of level of depth after just a couple weeks there (even if con's been there much longer). but.. i suppose.. that's why i'm so curious.

what shapes these things? why, in similarly crowded bangkok, do people stop at stoplights? people here are almost maddeningly polite and reserved. what's the difference?

some odd combination of a billion people, breathtaking and cyclical poverty, unprecedented opportunity in a rising economy, a free market, a caste system, hinduism with a healthy dose of islam and mysticism, cricket popularity, the arrival of mcdonalds, giant mountains, open sewers, outdoor urinals, fantastic architecture, sikhs (the most photographable people in the world), a bewildering mix of subcultures, 22 official languages, colonial remnants, independence, bollywood, and an abundance of chicken tikka masala all in the nine thousand year-old cradle of eastern religion.

somehow from all that you get temple stampedes. i could explore this stuff for the rest of my life.

wooleyboogers; CORN

two articles today:

a fantastic look at what went down yesterday at the white house. and..(via constance, who flyfishes) a different take on (a smiling) dick cheney.

and a MONKEY EATING CORN IN INDIA:

geopolitical thursdays.

stratfor is an austin-based foreign policy think tank whose analysis i started reading thanks to constance's grandfather. they are realist, pragmatic and non-partisan (even if a bit right-leaning.. the site is run by this guy), as proven in their impeccable coverage of the russia/georgia conflict.

here are two long-ish, but very informative looks at what foreign policy would look like under both obama (here) and mccain (here). he avoids more speculative (albeit important) factors like leadership capability, age, experience, intellect and temperament, and focuses more on history as an indicator, the reshaping global geopolitical landscape, and past statements from each candidate (as outlined in the intro here). very nuanced, complex stuff, and a nice change from soundbite and checklist politics.

anyway.. discuss away if anyone reads them.

monsoon; modest mice

uh. yeah. got nothing today. here's a neat picture of the time we went to taiwan the other day.

oooh update: here's where im sitting now:



the mountain looks like its erupting but that's the best i could get. my camera is only ok, and i just slipped off the awning while trying to get on the roof. and its now raining. and i'm "not allowed to climb on the roof in the rain with hemophilia." haters. curry time!

palin tuesdays..

.. since the parents and not-so-anonymous comment-leavers keep clamoring for more.

just kidding. sorta. there's really nothing from her this week considering, at last count, while joe biden's given 84 interviews since tabbed as VP, palin's given exactly two.

two.

or as summed up in the wapost:

“Mr. McCain is entitled to choose the person he thinks would be best for the job. He is not entitled to keep the public from being able to make an informed assessment of that judgment. Ms. Palin’s speech-making skills are impressive, but the more she repeats the same stump speech lines, the queasier we get. Nor have her answers to the gentle questioning she has encountered provided any confidence that Ms. Palin has a grasp of the issues.”

as a semi-journalist who believes in the valuable role of an independent and thinking press, and as someone who thinks the continuing "blame the media" strategy (the latest development of which is covered exhaustively on both sides here by a fantastic, non-partisan, truth-seeking blog) is distracting and maddening, the blackout seems a little appalling. straight talk mccain himself hasn't given a press conference in more than 40 days.

even if my wife and i are hollywood elitist liberals.

anyway.. here's what i'm reading to best understand the wall st. meltdown:

• paul krugman (lib.. really solid coverage )
• george will (conservative intellectual heavyweight)
• david brooks (the con libs love.. but cmon.. he's good)
• something james fallows wrote back in 2005.
  
• and.. courtesy of kurt.. our good friend and prescient uncle ron paul.

also.. first heard from kevin phillips on this fantastic show a while back. he's predicted all this pretty accurately. listen if curious.

update: finally found someone outside the bush admin who is (partially) defending the paulson plan

redesign; approximately

like?

expatting; place

learning a culture is hard. it's more than trying new foods or learning how to properly say hello. in india, it was the way waiters took our order. or the way indians did laundry. or the way indians would militantly wait in line like third graders awaiting recess until the train arrived, and then stampede on board. etc. it all said something about the invisible system created over thousands and thousands of years that influences everything.

here it's similarly difficult/interesting/maddening/enlivening.

so.. when someone from this site (which i wish i had created) approached me the other day (you can read my interview here), i started reading from some of the other thai expats. gladly, there's a ton of telling and resonant stuff which we feel like we're experiencing here.

for example.. according to nicolas from mauritius:

The first 2 years, all these customs looks sweet, very respectful to everybody, but I came to realize that it brings us and them to nowhere. So, now I tend to give my point of view and I try to speak with Thai people and force them to consider or see things they wouldn’t normally.

Every culture has good and bad things. We should strive to take the best of each and not just accept everything because we are in their country.

I’ve found out there’s a period of 3 years before expat people get into a crisis. At that point, they will get crazy over small things which they would usually tolerate then go back home or go through it and get a new philosophy on life. I’m right in the middle of this crisis.
....

I hate having Thais making enormous mistakes and try to hide it. Talking with the locals is pretty hard too because most of the time they will have no opinion. They will most likely answer what they think you want to hear. I have almost no Thai friends.

then there's vern from florida, who feels differently:

Overall, Thais are awesome! I don't have this generalized and jaded view of the Thais like most foreigners seem to have after a couple years. If you come to their country and try to live like it's your country - you'll not have a good time here. If you come to their country with the idea that you'll do what it takes to FIT IN, then you'll probably have a much better experience.

Thai people treat us extremely well considering foreigners USUALLY are not trying to fit into their culture and are seen as rude, ignorant, and impolite. Thai people seem to have an incredible tolerance for idiots in their country, which we in America don't have.

finally, there's andrew from the uk, who understands this biggest problems:

-What are the positive and negative aspects of living in Thailand?

Positive, the wonderful people. Negative, it's too hot and there's no cheese.

monks; clouds

glue; tediouosity

the most annoying thing about thailand isn't the ubiquitous lizard poo we find splattered over and over around the house. it's the stickers. what in the world is in the glue here? what's wrong with this place? it's almost too much to take. almost. yes. we're moving to singapore.





and... something pretty:

monies; markets

here's a soft relaunch of my website. still needs some work, and i'm going to try and reintegrate some of the pictures from the old one. big thanks to bryan for the help. if you spot any errors, etc.. please let me know.

here also is a neat picture from the sunday walking street market in chiang mai (the best of the 37 different markets we've visited in thailand):

good ideas; bad habits

our town only sells instant coffee. it's tragic, and probably the source of all the recent political turmoil (it's happened in other countries). so we went to chiang mai last weekend pretty much just so i could find better coffee, and i came back with this: an organic arabica coffee company started as a development initiative to help opium farmers find a different cash crop.

it's good coffee, and a good idea. love good ideas.

like this one:

con and i got thai massages at the chiang mai women's prison last weekend, through a program helping women gain marketable skills and save some money to ease their transition back into society. i love ideas like these. love them. love them. there are a like a billion massage parlors in chiang mai, so we figured we might as well get ones that meant something.


problem is i'm wildly ticklish and sometimes have difficulty understanding instructions in thai english. so... as result of a series of misunderstandings and feather-like foot massage maneuvers, i spent the hour tense and giggling and clapping like a one-handed swan (which i understand is an insult to both the king, queen and buddha all in one, and, of course, is punishable by foot massage).

and then there's this idea:

i'll admit, i'm not a smoker, but i love smoking. the smell, taste, feel.. all of it. but from what i've seen, smoking seems a bit taboo in thailand. here's why... check out the surgeon general warnings on all thai cigarette packs:


it seems very very effective. click the picture for more information. between smoking and alcohol laws, thailand seems pretty progressive. ok fine.. it's just gross.

here instead is a pretty picture we took in india:

pugs; massaging thugs

Con and I spent the weekend in Chiang Mai. It was fabulous, and we did get massages at a women's prison, learn to cook curry at an organic farm and make friends from Italy, Australia, Scotland and Manchester. But I killed the internet at our house while trying to set up wireless upon our return, so now I'm blogging from an internet cafe next to a snoring pug where Google shows up in very very unreadable Thai.

So.. when in doubt and unable to post pictures.. complain about politics.

James Fallows, an Atlantic blogger/editor based in Beijing who I started reading in the run-up to the Olympics, wins with the best review of Palin's flop on ABC:

The truly toxic combination of traits GW Bush brought to decision making was:

1) Ignorance
2) Lack of curiosity
3) "Decisiveness"

That is, he was not broadly informed to begin with (point 1). He did not seek out new information (#2); but he nonetheless prided himself (#3) on making broad, bold decisions quickly, and then sticking to them to show resoluteness.

We don't know for sure about #2 for Palin yet -- she could be a sponge-like absorber of information. But we know about #1 and we can guess, from her demeanor about #3.

Most of all we know something about the person who put her in this untenable role.

This works as an interesting response to Charles Krauthammer (a conservative, a fantastic writer, and someone who called the Palin pick "near suicidal"), who gave an otherwise solid defense of Palin's performance.

phayao; peacock

met this guy today.. one of four westerners living here, and the kind of guy you hope to meet while traveling abroad, drinking chang beer at a lakeside bar.

anyway.. here's our town:





also.. sleaziest ad of all-time?

the source of it all; curry

starting to gain some clarity on what everyone is arguing about in bangkok. starting to find this place positively delightful.

Samak is a nationally famous chef, renowned among his culinary colleagues the world over. In Thailand, he is best known for his cooking show, Tasting and Complaining, and his nine-editions-printed cookbook, not for politics.

As the show's name implies, Samak roasted more than just spicy fish on the air. He also used the opportunity to vent steam on political issues of his choice. Picture Bobby Flay ripping the Bush administration on Iron Chef between platings, and you get the idea.

The trouble is, Thailand's constitution prohibits members of the cabinet from working for private companies while in office. Samak cut back on the show after assuming power just over half a year ago, but he has made several appearances since then. Now, Samak is in court defending himself against the gravest allegation of all: cooking while in office.

exciting times. meanwhile, check out this neat ELEPHANT BUILDING:

bangkok; peril!

the movie of the year is out. i haven't seen it, and rotten tomatoes says it stinks. whatever. i've been to bangkok and anything bangkok kills.



so go see it, and know that it's pretty much our life here. that and ong bak. and the adventures of phillip in elephantland. whatever. don't cross me. p-smoove!

stonewalling; hipshooting

While we were watching a lightning storm over a lake in Thailand last night, Palin began her ninth consecutive day without speaking to the press. So much for 'Straight Talk McCain'.

Here's Frank Rich (yeah, I know, Frank Rich) summing up well why this VP pick reflects so poorly on McCain:

"The McCain campaign’s claims of a “full vetting process” for Palin were as much a lie as the biographical details they’ve invented for her. There was no F.B.I. background check. The Times found no evidence that a McCain representative spoke to anyone in the State Legislature or business community. Nor did anyone talk to the fired state public safety commissioner at the center of the Palin ethics investigation. No McCain researcher even bothered to consult the relevant back issues of the Wasilla paper. Apparently when McCain said in June that his vice presidential vetting process was basically “a Google,” he wasn’t joking.

This is a roll of the dice beyond even Bill Clinton’s imagination. “Often my haste is a mistake,” McCain conceded in his 2002 memoir, “but I live with the consequences without complaint.” Well, maybe it’s fine if he wants to live with the consequences, but what about his country? Should the unexamined Palin prove unfit to serve at the pinnacle of American power, it will be too late for the rest of us to complain.

We’ve already seen where such visceral decision-making by McCain can lead. In October 2001, he speculated that Saddam Hussein might have been behind the anthrax attacks in America. That same month he out-Cheneyed Cheney in his repeated public insistence that Iraq had a role in 9/11 — even after both American and foreign intelligence services found that unlikely. He was similarly rash in his reading of the supposed evidence of Saddam’s W.M.D. and in his estimate of the number of troops needed to occupy Iraq. (McCain told MSNBC in late 2001 that we could do with fewer than 100,000.) It wasn’t until months after “Mission Accomplished” that he called for more American forces to be tossed into the bloodbath. The whole fiasco might have been prevented had he listened to those like Gen. Eric Shinseki who faulted the Rumsfeld war plan from the start.

In other words, McCain’s hasty vetting of Palin was all too reminiscent of his grave dereliction of due diligence on the war. He has been no less hasty in implying that we might somehow ride to the military rescue of Georgia (“Today, we are all Georgians”) or in reaffirming as late as December 2007 that the crumbling anti-democratic regime of Pervez Musharraf deserved “the benefit of the doubt” even as it was enabling the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. McCain’s blanket endorsement of Bush administration policy in Pakistan could have consequences for years to come."

Anyway.. because I looove the fairness doctrine, here's Foreign Policy's list of reasons to be wary of Obama.

this is not my beautiful house; how did i get here?

Finally made it to Phayao last night, where we'll be living. Our house is large and Thai and only sorta has a kitchen. Details, details. With a large yard, Constance will get to have her garden. We're three houses down from a large temple monastery thing. The town reminds of almost exactly of where we lived in the Domincan Republic, plus three 7-11s and a KFC.

There are mountains and a large beautiful lake, home to one of the seven underwater wonders of the world (who didn't memorize these when they were a kid). Chiang Rai, famous for being fabulous, is just an hour away.

Important update on beer sales: You're allowed to buy alcohol, oddly, between the hours of 11 am and 2 pm, then again after 5 pm. Breathe easier.

I'll post house pictures later.

Update II: The kitchen is in a separate house out back.. and until a few hours and 5,000 baht ago, was a bike shed. Same as it ever was.. Same as it ever was..

Update III: Underscoring my point about the protesters from yesterday..

Update IV: Raining, so no house pictures today. Instead, here's another fun one from Liberia (click for relevant post from, as you might've noticed, a blog I love):

palin; boy scouts

When news broke of Palin's preggo daughter a few days ago, I first rolled my eyes. I figured news would overblow it, giving the GOP a legitimate claim that the media is acting unfairly. It'd be distracting and annoying and irrelevant to her ability to be VP (especially compared to the 13 other things that have come out in the past week). But I still haven't heard a good answer to this question:

Should a parent willingly allow her pregnant daughter to be subjected to this kind of national shame?

It's just seems kinda icky. Lots of candidates turn down VP offers to protect their families. Palin seems intensely likable as a person, even if I think she could turn out to be the worst VP pick in several years, but this a seems like a bit of a character ding. Add the shotgun wedding (which seems unavoidably politically motivated) and her stupid stupid opposition to sex-ed classes.. and suddenly its not so irrelevant.

Anyway... she's solid and energizing on stage.. so there's that.

Concerning Thai politics:

Things seem to be sort of settling down here. Or maybe not. We sipped mochas across the street from the protest headquarters yesterday, and the whole thing just seemed a little funny. It's very real, and someone did die the other night, and there are a series of bounties out which I don't understand, and its the kind of uproar that led to a coup in 2006. But the headquarters looked like some sort of treehouse club — a bunch of young Thais sitting around behind a few weak lines of barbed wire looking angry listing to amplified propaganda with rags on their heads while tourists wandered by looking for coffee. I was more upset to learn today I couldn't buy beer from 7-11 until 5 pm. Yesterday's affair was very pleasant:


Also saw riot police protecting something the other night. I tried to snap a picture, but forgot about the flash and failed.. miserably:




Anyway.. we're having fun:

bangkok; perhaps they'll end this dispute in a THAI

we're here. thailand. bangkok. finally found internet access and got blogger to work. food is fantastic. blah blah blayaawn. yeah you don't care. what you obviously care about is the...

STATE OF EMERGENCY!

i've always thought that my wife and i have a bit of a destabilizing presence when we travel abroad. in fact, more accurately, she does. she's smoking hot, and when she walks down the street men tend to start spraying each other with tear gas. we've seen it everywhere. she was in nepal the day the king stepped down, ending like a million-year monarchy. we had plans to go to both darjeeling and rajasthan in india, but both were simultaneously shut down by separate anticipatory riots. we went north instead to himachal pradesh, leaving the earth there so shaky that a landslide crushed like a million people not long after our departure. (tasteless? whatever. my point is that she's hot.)

so we fly into bangkok at about 2 am on monday (two days after protesters had in anticipation disrupted flights at all three airports) and immediately our new thai friends start apologizing that their great nation had welcomed us with such familial strife. whatever. i think it's thrilling. we should all get to witness geopolitical history from the front lines at some point in our lives. and while im sure my presence (as proxy) started a fight somewhere in africa during my week-long stay in liberia last december, things in my first war-torn nation were alarmingly (actually, in reality, wonderfully/encouragingly/hope for humanity-ly) calm.

so when we awoke at 5 am today (jetlag) to the CNN news that riots had swept our new kingdom into a military-controlled sorta-tizzy while we slept, i was dismayed to learn that geopolitical history sometimes happens after 9 pm (jetlag). furthermore, beyond to the constant apologies from our friends, we haven't actually seen anything that suggests the country is in lockdown, even as we stay the week at a protest-fertile university. trains might not run tomorrow, but we spent yesterday at a mall which felt a lot like london, and tonight we'll dally around town in lonely planet bliss. thai strife is rarely that eventful anyway (the military's 2006 'silken coup' happened without firing a single shot).

regardless, i wore my best shirt today just in case i luck out and find myself walking down the soi with constance, locked into a tear gas clash on international tv.

anyway.. here's the best alternative explanation i've found. and a blog from someone who seems like he knows. and the best english newspaper in thailand.

meanwhile, we're here. thailand. living out the god-created desires of our heart abroad. learning to think, live and love in new ways best sparked when challenged by the delightfully unfamiliar.

here's our new house. our group here decided the last place (here) wasn't enough. now we have a yard. and three bedrooms. how frigging perfect is this place. come visit.