Saturday, March 29, 2008

Going to the movies in Thailand

On a whim this afternoon, I went to see a movie. Josh and I have already seen one so far-- The Spiderwick Chronicles-- and the experience confirmed for us that Thai movie theaters are crazy awesome. But more on that later.

I took the Skytrain down to National Stadium to go to the EGV Grand Cinema at Siam Discovery Center. The movie I wanted to see was a Thai one, Pidtermyai Huajai Wawoon (which gets translated simply as "Hormones" on all of the movie posters I've seen). Here, Thai movies are commonly (but not always) subtitled in English, rather than dubbed over. I paid 120 baht for a ticket in one of the standard theaters, plus an extra 80 baht for a bag of popcorn (sweet, not salted and buttered; they serve multiple flavors here) and a bottle of lemonade. (As before, I leave the currency conversions to the reader.)

The theater itself was comparable to a very nice stadium-seating setup in the US, with comfy chairs with movable armrests. When you buy your ticket, you always pick your seat ahead of time off a monitor or a diagram.

Like the US, the movie was preceded by quite a few previews (for both US and Thai movies) and a bunch of commercials. Given the previews we've seen, it seems that "band of adorable scamps getting the better of adults in a particular setting" is a common plot outline for comedies here. There was one in the theaters a while back about a bunch of kids kidnapped by pirates, and the two I saw trailers for today were 1. a bunch of young boys become monks, as is common here, and raise havoc in the monastery and 2. a bunch of young boys form a competitive tug-of-war team for their school sports competition. Invariably, hilarity ensues. There are also several movies that seem to revolve around a priest or spirit medium who is responsible for quelling ghosts and has bumbling assistants that get into trouble (if you've seen the unspeakably awesome Hong Kong action movie Mr. Vampire, you know the kind of thing I'm talking about, only this is the Thai version).

The trailers are always followed by the King's Anthem, which everyone stands up for and which is played over a montage of images and scenes (the content of this depends on the theater chain). I really liked the one shown in the EGV theater, actually-- it made me feel patriotic and this isn't even my country!

The movie itself was better than I expected-- a romantic comedy about a series of highschool and college kids having "adventures in love" over their school's summer break. There are four interlocking stories: a pair of best friends compete to win the same girl, a shy kid gets up the courage to talk to his secret crush, a girl prepares for her favorite Taiwanese pop star to come to town for a concert, and a college guy struggles to stay faithful to his girlfriend while she is on an internship down south. I thought the quality of the acting was very good, and the writing was excellent (the subtitles must have been as well, since I found myself laughing at the same points as the Thai audience!) There were some interesting cultural aspects but overall it was very accessible to a Westerner like me-- and there was none of the raunchiness I've come to expect from American movies about "teenagers in love". I hope it comes out on US DVD, but I plan to get a copy when it comes out here, at least.

Now for why Thai movies theaters are awesome: the theater I was in today, which was equivalent to a nice US one and which was VERY comfortable, is actually on the low end of the amenities scale here. Most large theaters have one or more "extra" levels of comfort ("Gold", "Premium", etc., depending on theater and chain) that might involve things such as smaller screening rooms, cushier and more varied seats, special food options, and other goodies. When Josh and I went to see Spiderwick, the next available showing was in something called the "Friendship" Theater, the "intermediate" level of service. We were given three choices of seats: 1) a block of four chaise-lounge type sofa seats, allowing four people to stretch out, for 1200 baht per block; 2) a loveseat-type thing with built-in recliners and footrests for two people, for 600 baht total; or 3) big overstuffed beanbag chairs for 300 baht each! We went for one of the loveseats-- they were ridiculously comfortable, and almost put us in danger of falling asleep during the movie. Our 300-baht-apiece tickets also included a popcorn-and-drink combo for each of us, which was delivered to our seats before the movie started, as well as some blankets to cover up with in case the air conditioning was too much!

Remember, this is only the "middle" level of a nice but not top-of-the-line cinema. I'm really looking forward to what the fanciest options include. I think there is a more extensive food menu that is served to you in the theater-- there was assorted nice international food and an extensive selection of wine and beer available at the theater itself for before or during the movie.

I don't know of anywhere else in the world that is reputed to have a movie-going experience this nice, not even Japan. The USA seriously needs to get on the ball here. We're going to be thoroughly spoiled by the time we head back...

Thursday, March 27, 2008

All by my lonesome!

Sorry I haven't done much posting the past week, but Josh has done such a great job (and he actually beat me to the Jim Thompson house post!)

Josh is in Indonesia for the next week, so I've got the place to myself. I'm trying to get onto a regular schedule as far as work and play are concerned. I'm now thinking that I'll work in the afternoons, since most events happen in the mornings (the temperature is better, for one thing).

I was originally worried about not having enough to do, but I think the opposite may be the case: there are an enormous number of activities to enjoy! There is sightseeing and shopping, but there are events at the American Women's Club (which I've joined), the Siam Society, the Embassy, and any number of other places-- plus there are Thai language classes, art classes, and so on. Three years is now seeming like too short a time!

This week I've been trying out some assorted things: on Monday morning I went to an "Adjusting in Bangkok" coffee meet-up held by the American Women's Club at the "Au Bon Pain" down at the Emporium shopping center (two stops down the Skytrain line from where we are). This evening, I went to the Siam Society to check it out and see a talk on "Birds in Chinese Art". It was incredibly interesting and right up my alley (I now know how to tell a boy phoenix from a girl phoenix, which I'm sure will come in very handy in the future!) I think Josh and I are going to spring for Siam Society memberships, as they are always having events and trips, plus that will give us access to a fantastic library on Asian history and culture.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to an "Armchair Anthropology" lecture on the Thai approach to the spirit world, and Saturday morning I am going to a craft fair which is held monthly at the Ambassador Hotel, just down Soi 11 from us. ThaiCraft is a fair-trade organization which sponsors numerous Thai artisans producing all kinds of products, and they have a fair like this at the Ambassador once or twice a month. If you are looking for anything specific, let us know and we will look for it!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Jim Thompson House

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So this past weekend we hit one of the typical European tourist spots--Jim Thompson's house. Jim Thompson was an officer of the OSS, who apparently retired to Bangkok where he helped revive the hand-woven silk industry. While here he built a house made from six other teak Thai houses from around Bangkok, and collected a wide array of antiques. He died 'mysteriously' in Malaysia, and his house--now owned by the corporation that bears his name--is open to the public.

At least, that's what the brochure tells you. Some local informants have leaked that Jim Thompson was apparently hit by a car on a road in the back-country of Malaysia. The driver was supposedly frightened that he had hit and killed a white man, and so it went unreported, with Jim Thompson simply 'disappearing'. This story, too, has some holes, but it seems a reasonable explanation.

Regardless, we got a lot more than we bargained for here. I imagined that this would be pretty kitchy, but there were a lot of good things to see. First of all, there is the house and outbuildings:

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I'm not sure about all the buildings on the property, but the main house is definitely a conglomeration of several Thai houses. Underneath the pillars is a stone-floored area that is almost like an open-air museum, with some exquisite pieces. Inside is a kitchen, dining room, living room, office and bedroom.

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There are steps everywhere, as the entire house is on stilts. The front entrance used to face the klong, or canal, to the north. To the south was the garden, with other small outbuildings that currently hold various artifacts.

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Some of the buildings date to the Ayutthaya period. This one was a storehouse for rice and grain. It currently holds some of the antique paraphenalia used for the weaving of silk

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They won't allow pictures inside the house, but they will allow it outside in the garden and in the outbuildings. They would even allow pictures from outside of the inside--so I'm not sure entirely what the policy was all about, really.

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This Buddhist statue and another one one the other side of the house were quite old--the other is apparently famous, but we didn't get a picture. Sigh. We did get a lot of pictures of other pieces of art, though.

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These two panels come from the Ayutthaya period--probably 17th century.

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One small outbuilding was filled with pictures (click on any of our photos to see our complete gallery on Flickr). Unfortunately there was no information on them, so trying to classify them into periods remains the task of the observer.

This turned out to be a place we would definitely take people if they are in town. The tour is brief, and the garden is wonderful. We may even post more of the photos here, unless Ellen wants to talk about our trip to Chatuchak some weekends ago. However, it is getting late and I am getting tired, so I will sign off for now.

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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Indian food in Bangkok

Not a great big post, but I wanted to share with folks a great little Indian restaurant we found here in Bangkok. It is just off of Sukhumvit Soi 8--once you start down you'll turn into this dingy little alley on your left and it is towards the very end on the right. It is called Namuskaar, and it was wonderful. We both had the non-veg thali and it was served rather plainly, with no great pomp. There was a chicken curry, vegetables, yoghurt, rice, papadum, and naan. It came with gulab jamun for dessert, and we finished it off with masala chai. Including a separate water, lassi, and soda that we ordered the meal came to a very reasonable 805 baht--about USD $26. That's probably about what we'd each pay at a restaurant in the states; the thali themselves only came to about $8 a person.

We recommend it to anyone visiting Thailand looking for a nice Indian restaurant with a family friendly atmosphere.