Saturday, March 1, 2008

Khlong San Saeb (a closeup)


Bangkok 020, originally uploaded by tatsushu.

Here's a closeup of the canal as seen from our window. I didn't get any of the canal boats in this shot, but we do see them going up and down regularly.

The canal boats on Khlong San Saeb have been described, and not inaccurately, as the world's only transportation that runs on toxic waste: the canal is very polluted, and it's not worth thinking about the ramifications of falling into the water. The boats have plastic sheeting along the sides that can be raised to protect against splashing as you're going down the canal at high speed. Best to keep your mouth closed instead of gawking at the sights!

We've only ridden the boats once so far, but it was a fun experience: you wait at a rather makeshift floating pier, and when the boat comes alongside, you jump down inside, to find a seat as quickly as possible. The boats only stop for a few seconds, so you have to be quick! You then purchase a ticket from one of the crew, and prepare to hop off again at your destination pier. The boat from the pier closest to our building (Sukhumvit Soi 3, or Nana Nua) doesn't go all the way to the final stop at Phan Fa, so we had to change at an intermediate pier, which was pretty straightforward.

There is a larger boat service that runs up and down the Chao Phraya River, and I'll try to post some photos of those boats later on.

Our neighborhood (4), the highway and canal


Bangkok 016, originally uploaded by tatsushu.

This is the view northwest from our bedroom window. You can see the superhighway in the background-- this is the way we arrived from the airport. At night, the highway is brightly lit and we can see the billboards and signs very clearly (it's spectacular!)

The tall building in the back left is Baiyoke Tower, the tallest building in Bangkok.

Immediately to the right of the white building at left center is Khlong San Saeb ("khlong" means "canal"), which runs east-west and serves as a means of transport. Canal boats run up and down the waterway, stopping at certain piers to pick up and discharge passengers. It's an interesting ride!

Our next-door neighbors!


Bangkok 019, originally uploaded by tatsushu.

This is what we see looking straight down from our bedroom: the residence of the Japanese Ambassador to Thailand!

The house and grounds are quite beautiful (from above, anyway-- we really haven't looked much at street level). The pond is filled with large koi (Japanese carp), and the "fishing pavilion" evidently provides a great place to feed them from, as I've seen the fish swarming around there at certain times!

Our neighboorhood (3), looking west


Bangkok 011, originally uploaded by tatsushu.

This is the view from our bedroom window, looking due west. The octagonal building is another apartment building next door. Right behind it is Bumrungrad Hospital, a very large private hospital that will probably be our main place for health care while we're here in Thailand.

Bumrungrad is quite a place: I went there the other day to get patient registration cards for Josh and me, and to get a prescription refilled. The lobby looks more like a 5-star hotel than what we would expect of a hospital-- there is even a food court! After signing in, I went to the appropriate specialist's office, spoke with the doctor within 5 minutes, and went to the cashier and pharmacy to pick up my prescription. The hospital fees came to a total of about 1000 baht, or around US $30.

The hospital, and Thai health care in general, have a great reputation: many Thai doctors train in the US or Europe, and Thailand has become a huge spot for "medical tourism" in recent years, because costs are much less expensive (although you generally do have to pay out of pocket, with certain exceptions). I hope we won't need to visit the doctor much, but we should be well taken care of.

New look for the blog

I changed to a simpler blog format because the pictures from Flickr were getting cropped. Hopefully I'll figure out a way to make it work with the original template.

Another aside: please feel free to make comments, and if you have questions to ask, I'll try to respond!

Our neighborhood (2), the Skytrain station


Bangkok 025, originally uploaded by tatsushu.

This is a (slightly fuzzy, sorry!) closeup of the area to the right of the central building in the previous photo. The lighted platform is the Phloen Chit Skytrain (elevated railway) station. The Skytrain is relatively new and a nice, fast, and most importantly airconditioned way to get around Bangkok. Right now there are only two lines and a limited number of stops, but there are plans to expand it soon.

We've ridden the Skytrain a lot because it is a very convenient way to get around, and not too crowded. This station is actually the next one down from the station that we use (Nana), but that one's not visible from our apartment. The trees behind the station mark the start of Wireless Road (Thanon Witthayu), which is where most of the Embassies are located. This station actually is only about 15 minutes walk away for us.

Our neighborhood! (1)


Bangkok 024, originally uploaded by tatsushu.

Now that I've finally gotten some photos uploaded to Flickr, we can start showing you what the view looks like from Casa de Geek (aka our 21st-floor apartment)!

This is the view looking southeast towards the central shopping area. The American Embassy is in this direction. Most of these buildings are office or apartment buildings.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Whew-- we're here!

Finally, some content!

Well, after a grueling pack-out and journey, we've arrived at our new home in Bangkok. We've actually been here about a week now, but our home Internet connection is just now up and running (and not too reliably, yet). So far our time has been taken up with getting checked in at the Embassy, setting up our apartment, exploring our neighborhood, and (last but NOT least) getting over jet-lag AND being sick. (Evidently it's not uncommon for new arrivals to Bangkok to come down with some sort of respiratory "ick" in the first week, because the city is more polluted than we are used to, albeit not as bad as someplace like LA!)

I'll soon be posting some pictures of our new home and our neighborhood, so watch this space for details!