Remembering the Tsunami of 2004…

What happened on Boxing Day 2004 was horrific. Even though I wasn’t on the ground, it marked my life. And because of that, every year I’ve put aside time to honour those caught up in the events.

This year I made a point to read And Then One Morning, an eyewitness account written by Aaron Le Boutillier (interviewed earlier this month on WLT).

Aaron’s book saddened me but gave hope as well. It underlined how fragile life can be, but it also brought home how an event so massively terrifying can change lives forever. And not always for the worst.

I didn’t have an easy time writing this post so please forgive its faults.

And then one morning…

When the tsunami hit I was on the island of Borneo, wandering around packing boxes bound for Thailand. My Thai visa being delayed, I was experiencing the simmering limbo well-known to seasoned expats.

On the same side of the world Aaron was visiting Phi Phi, Thailand, to help a longtime friend and his family of five relocate to Phuket. It was meant to be their last Christmas on the island, with Boxing Day being moving day.

At about ten the next morning I was in that comfortable slumber zone… Suddenly my brain was registering the sound of children screaming. At first I thought some idiots were trying to scare them, but the screams were genuinely frightened, so much so that they were frightening me… Now fully awake, I could hear that the screaming was mixed with another sound – a crunching, grinding, roaring kind. It would be almost another two days before I would sleep again.

So while I was casually sipping coffee and recovering from Christmas dinner of the night before, Aaron was waking up to the fight of his life.

Through the noise I picked up the words “wing wing” which means “run run” in Thai and I heard the sound of feet pounding on the sandy street outside my room.

I jumped out of bed and pushed open my wooden window.

Down on the street, the first thing I saw was Heinz with Anna under his arm and Tina holding onto his hand. I shouted down to him and he looked at me for a brief second with eyes that will haunt me until the day I die.

An hour after the tsunami hit I was most likely moving slow, perhaps wondering what to wear that evening at Barnaby and Luciana’s. Or maybe, just maybe, I was thinking about what leftovers to reheat for lunch. But whatever it was, was not life threatening.

All I knew was that I was alive and badly cut up. There were many people who were alive but in desperate situations. Some would die but there were many, many who were already dead. Ten? Fifty? A hundred? Possibly more. But did I think tsunami? The answer is no… Life had truly been reduced to its very basics – trying to stay alive – certainly not trying to analyse what might have caused this hell. This was an obscene soup, not a tsunami wave.

For me, the quiet of lunchtime came and went. And as far as I knew nothing out of the ordinary was happening. It was just a typical day on yet another Christmas holiday.

I had lost count of how many dead bodies I’d seen already. Curiously, although my mission was now to find Heinz, Oiy, Tina, Anna and little Dino, it didn’t occur to me to look to see if any of these bodies were theirs. It never entered my mind that they might not have survived.

I scrambled up the hillside to join the crowd making their exodus from the beach and suddenly I saw them – Oiy and Dino side by side. Dino looked completely blank, like so many others. Oiy looked to be in total despair and I could see she was suffering from some nasty wounds… It was just the two of them – no Heinz or Tina or Anna.

That evening at Barnaby and Luciana’s I celebrated with friends made during nine years of Borneo living. At some point late in the evening there was a whispered mention of a tragedy somewhere in the region but the discussion never took hold. Too many rounds of holiday cheer? I honestly don’t know.

It was only when I checked emails that I read how serious it was. Arriving home I found an inbox filled with friends panicking at my lack of a response, some even posting alerts on design forums to see if I’d survived. But I was not in Thailand. Yet.

The day after the tsunami hit I bounced between the BBC and the Internet. The day after the tsunami hit Aaron continued his search for his dear friends.

Nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. There must have been ten rows of bodies with a short gap between them for walking down. In total, there was about six hundred bodies. All of these were from Phi Phi: babies, toddlers, children, adolescents and adults… We stood there for some time with our own thoughts. After the spell was broken we made our way to the front of the row and then up and down six hundred corpses looking for Heinz, Tina or Anna.

From the quotes I selected above, it’s obvious that And Then One Morning is not an easy read. Especially if you are reading this during the holiday celebrations of Boxing Day, 2010. But if you too want to understand just a bit of what happened during the Tsunami, then I highly recommend grabbing a copy.

Interview: Aaron Le Boutillier…

Aaron, one year, two years, three years… as time marches on, each year the impact from a life changing experience morphs. Looking back over the six years, how do you see the influence of the tsunami on your life?

Looking back, while although I wished all those lives were spared, experiencing the tsunami gave me a unique insight into people and the fragility of life that we all take for granted.

In the space of a few hours, I saw the best and worst of humans, ranging from pure heroism that a person can have for a complete stranger to the human instinct of people benefiting from the misfortune of others.

To have faced death square in the eyes, then through sheer luck survived, is a rewarding experience. It gives an inner peace that you can never truly understand unless you have experienced such an event.

On a negative, I cannot stop my mind from playing games. Quite frequently in a crowded environment where everyone is relaxed and enjoying themselves, I will imagine a tragedy, go through how everyone will cope and the horror of the aftermath.

I think all survivors have their demons and when you have been so closely linked to so much death it does affect your imagination. As a result it occasionally becomes quite dark.

All in all, I gained from the experience and have used it to make my future more rewarding.

Aaron Le Boutillier
And Then One Morning | Le Boutillier Group
Successful Thai Language Learner: Aaron Le Boutillier

Expat women in Thailand…

If you are an expat women in Thailand, you might feel a bit overwhelmed by the overabundance of expat maleness. When I first arrived, I was. A bit. For a female focus, at that time there was BNOW (Bangkok Network for Women), your bog-standard womens’ groups (but early coffee mornings are not my thing), and the Ladies in Thailand forum at ThaiVisa (just gaining speed).

Several years on the situation for expat women in Thailand has improved. My buddy Amy created the resource Expat Women in Bangkok (later changed to encompass all of Thailand: Expat Women in Thailand). And as great minds are known to think alike, I launched WLT at the exact same time. Ok, neither of our sites are for women only, but hey…

Also an improvement for expat women in Thailand, is Chicky Net.

What is Chicky Net: Chicky Net is the online social network for women who have either relocated to Thailand or who are visiting for a specific period of time. The website offers an exiting and fun way to meet other expats and to best of all make new friends with whom they can share their experiences with getting the most out of their time here in Thailand.

When the groups were separated by location I wasn’t around that much. But now that Chicky Net has relaunched as one unit, I have do plans.

Chicky Net Relaunches!…

Before Chicky Net relaunched I contacted Berthe, the founder, for an interview.

Berthe, how did you find yourself in Thailand?

My boyfriend and I wanted to try something different and see what it would be like to live in another country. We have been in Thailand for about 2 years now and really love it over here. Thailand is a beautiful country and I like the mentality of the Thais, their friendliness and their mai pen rai attitude. It’s probably not for everyone but for me it works really well.

Where did the idea for Chicky Net come from?

After being in Phuket for a while I found it difficult to meet other people and especially women. Back home I was part of an online group for women that wanted to expand their social circle and I had met some great people because of this group. So I thought why not try it here? I created a group on Facebook, posted a topic on Thai Visa and waited. Luckily 2 other girls quickly found the group, they invited their friends, and these friends invited their friends. At one point the group on Facebook just became too big. The Facebook group format was becoming very restrictive so we moved to our very own social network.

The idea behind Chicky Net has always been that the members should mainly run it themselves. Because Chicky Net has members of all ages and nationalities there is always something of interest for everyone and if there isn’t then they can create it themselves. The website itself is women-only but if the organizer of an event wants to to include partners as well then that’s her call. I really believe that this freedom and the space for initiative is one of the reasons that Chicky Net is so successful.

What are your future plans for Chicky Net?

Initially Chicky Net started in Phuket and its big success was the inspiration to create more networks in other locations in Thailand. It really was such a surprise that women were actually here in great numbers; we were just not very visible. In time there were suddenly 5 networks: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Koh Samui and Phuket. It wasn’t ideal to manage them separately and the idea came to combine all networks on the same website.

The new website has just launched and it looks just amazing. Members now have access to the members and information of the other locations which is extremely useful for traveling or even relocating. The mix of the activity of the different locations is also very inspirational. And most importantly, the new network created space to expand to other locations, which will be realized soon.

Eventually my dream is to expand to other locations in Asia. But first things first. For now the focus stays on Thailand. I do want to get more Thai ladies on board. We live in Thailand after all and I think that we could learn a lot from each other.

And before I forget… how are your Thai lessons coming?

I had a promising start when I moved to Thailand! Besides learning how to speak I also wanted to learn how to read and write. But then Chicky Net came along and I just couldn’t find the time anymore to review or prepare my lessons so I stopped for the time being. What I did learn comes in handy and I continue to learn as I go along. I especially love the Thai script and actually found it easier to learn than the spoken part. Knowing how to read Thai a bit has really been a blessing on many occasions and I always recommend it to people wanting to learn Thai. It’s a must for learning how to master the language properly, not to mention that it’s great when you can decipher menus, signs or even doctor prescriptions (well… that I can read that I should take this and that medicine for 5 days and 2 times a week)

Berthe,
Chicky Net
Facebook: Chicky Net

Chicky Net Thai…

On Chicky Net there is a Learning Thai group. When you think of ‘groups’, think ‘forum’.

If you are a women in Thailand (expat, Thai, whatever), or if you have contacts with Thailand, then go ahead and look me up at Chicky Net. So far I’ve connected with most of the lasses who comment on WLT. But if you are a lurker, be sure to give me a nudge too.

And if you are a guy, well, I’ve heard that guys are allowed in sometimes. But I imagine that being on your best behaviour will come into it quite heavily ;-)

Enjoy…

The Grumpy Expat: Raising Turkeys in Thailand…

A post I wrote, Thai Turkeys for Thanksgiving, came to the attention of another Thai blogger, Stu Alan. Stu hosts The Grumpy Expat.

Welcome. I’ve retired, in a way, to live with my wife in Thailand. I like it here! After more than 40 years of working to business schedules and deadlines, I’ve had the task of adjusting both to the pace of retirement and the pace of Thailand. Retired ‘in a way’ only because I can’t sit still doing nothing for the rest of my days. There’s so much to do and every new day reminds me that now I must get on with it.

And Stu just happens to be a turkey farmer (hence finding my post on Thai turkeys). I looked around for turkey farmers last year to interview, but nothing panned out. So here we are at Thanksgiving again, and Stu has agreed to tell all about raising turkeys in Thailand.

Interviewing Stu Alan about Thai, Thailand, and raising turkeys…

Stu, how long have you lived in Thailand?

Four years full time.

What is the level of your Thai language skills?

Beginner. I struggle with new languages and people here often mix Thai with Lao. Intonation is difficult to learn from books and I don’t want lessons. I have to make more of an effort.

Has your present Thai language skills in any way hindered your ability to raise turkeys in Thailand?

No. My wife translates when necessary and there are English speakers who are interested in turkeys to whom I talk.

What was the deciding factor of raising turkeys in Thailand?

We live in a village with some land and turkey keeping in a small way appealed to me as something else to do in retirement. You can nurture only so much pretty garden so some land was going to waste.

Have you run into any major snafus since you started raising turkeys?

The only real problem has been the loneliness of the learning curve. Local Thais who have turkeys take no more care of them than they do gai ban. Mosquito bites can kill poults so we had to learn the hard way that they can be protected against most ailments with a course of injections.

The standing water on some of our land, our own small flood, has isolated the turkey and chicken coops so we have to provide B&B near to the house. It’s like taking care of a bunch of two year old children but, hopefully, a temporary issue.

Why do so many expats have problems raising turkeys in Thailand?

If they do its because they don’t search for information and listen too much to local ‘knowledge’. Turkeys behave differently from chickens and that must be taken into account. Things are inconvenient for us at the moment for the reason stated above but they aren’t so difficult to care for. The main thing is to keep the newly hatched poults under mosquito netting until the course of inoculations is finished. That takes about seven weeks. After that, young poults need to be guarded from danger in the same way as human toddlers. We let the hens set on and hatch their eggs and then they stay under cover with the poults. After that, they care for their offspring for about three more months if they free-range. That all makes life for us easier than if we hatched in an incubator and then found ourselves appointed as parents. Nature’s way is better unless you have a factory farm.

What kids of turkeys are the best to raise here?

I have heard of someone who sells breeds but Thailand generally isn’t into that kind of fusiness. Ours seem to be mainly Bronze or close to it. The big white turkeys are Broad Breasted and developed for slaughter after six months. Kept longer than that and they are unable to walk and die young. They are intended for factory farms and I don’t recommend them for small producers or as pets.

How are turkeys in Thailand different than turkeys in the west?

I haven’t seen a difference yet but it’s possible that the laying season here is virtually continuous. Turkeys don’t lay as frequently as chickens. A hen will lay about twelve eggs and then incubate them. She may not lay again for some time but others will. It’s too early to be sure but we might be getting eggs throughout the year. What that boils down to, I suppose, is that the turkeys are the same but the climate makes some difference to their habits.

How long have turkeys been in Thailand?

I don’t know the answer to that. I suspect not long. I would guess that they were introduced within the last few decades by Westerners.

Do Thais have special recipes for turkeys?

As far as I can see they mince the meat and ruin the flavour with chili and garlic before adding hedgerow ‘vegetables’ and, of course, rice. I enjoy chili and spices but that’s not the way to enjoy turkey. Many Thai homes lack an oven, of course, and Thai cuisine favours small pieces of meat rather than slices. I intend to educate our neighbours but rural Thais are not adventurous in a gastronomic way.

What advice do you give potential turkey farmers?

Research before you start and do not plan to treat them the same way as chickens. There are books and websites that offer information. The climate here makes a difference and for that there is no useful literature. We learned a lot quickly and I’m willing to help people who want to keep turkeys. We can also supply inoculated and well fed birds to start a new flock.

Book: Not Just For Christmas – Janice Houghton-Wallace – is good for starters and available from Amazon.

Web: Here’s a great American based forum for all poultry keepers: Backyard Chickens

What was the most hilarious thing to happen to your turkey adventure?

Turkeys are fun to watch. Probably the funniest moments are when one finds a tasty piece of protein. At the moment we have a lot of snails and minute frogs on the land. The lucky winner has to place the morsel on the ground to turn it ready for knocking back into the crop. If he’s spotted by the others before he can do that we are treated to a Benny Hill style single file run around the garden as they try to snatch it from him.

And if you can think of anything else…

What else? Well, I suppose the main issue is learning how to take care of them properly because few keepers do here and the mortality rate is high. We’ve had to learn from experience about medication (we are lucky in Thailand because many vets in the West won’t treat turkeys and the fees here are minimal), coop design, perches, feed, safety and security.

As I mentioned above, I would be happy to help others get through all of that learning quicker than we were able to. Also, we prefer to sell our turkeys to breeders and keepers and can guarantee that they have had the best care possible.

Stu Alan
The Grumpy Expat | The Grumpy Expat: Forum

The expat woman’s guide to living in Thailand…

The Expat Woman’s Guide to Living in Thailand is the only guidebook for foreign women living in Thailand. It is a book based on my experiences with living in Bangkok. What I learned I’d like to pass on to other women (or men) to make their transition easier, saving them time, money and frustration.

The book is in a PDF file format with links to many, many websites to give you even more information, so if you extend it out to the websites I refer you to the book is endless. Because of the timeliness of the web and its ever-changing nature, I like to update my guide twice a year. So check for new venues and services that would benefit expats and update any non-working links.

These changes are in my Guide Updates section, so that previous customers can return and get the latest information and therefore their ebook guides never go out of date. 

For example, in the latest guide updates, I’ve added about five new yoga studios in Phuket, whereas when I first wrote the book two years ago, there was very little information online about individual yoga studios. Chiang Mai seems to have yoga studios coming and going, so there are always changes to be made in that section as well.

Frozen yogurt is also becoming more popular in Bangkok and I’ve added a resource for expats to fill their craving for something sweet and creamy, yet not so fattening as ice cream. Better articles are replaced with out of date articles, such as Where to Buy the Best Ice Cream in Bangkok on page 119.

A few restaurants throughout Thailand have created FaceBook fan pages, too. Many of these establishments don’t have the resources or time to make their own website, but their FaceBook page can give you their menu, location and phone number as well as specials and promos they have going on.

If you or someone you know is going to be moving to Thailand, whether they are male or female, please come and take a look at The Expat Woman’s Guide to Living in Thailand for yourself and you’ll find that this guidebook can make your transition into Thailand far easier and even a pleasant experience.

Btw: If you have the time, check out Catherine’s review of an earlier version: The Expat Women’s Guide to Bangkok.

Amy Praphantanathorn,
The Expat Woman’s Guide to Living in Thailand
Squidoo: Resources for Learning Thai | Squidoo: Expat Women in Bangkok
Expat Interviews: For a Different Viewpoint: Expat Woman in Bangkok, Thailand

Hugh’s Retired Life in Thailand…

Hugh is an industrious individual. No doubt. Besides gardening (yes, I’m envious, very) he’s always working on new and intriguing projects. Although retired, he authors books for the Thai professional market (impressed? I am). And as you all know, he also writes the instructive Thai Language Thai Culture for WLT. But that’s not all.

I have been writing about retiring in Thailand for the last four years. First, I started writing a monthly column for the Chiang Mai City Life magazine, and later developed a website, Retire 2 Thailand, where I lead prospective retirees to lots and lots of information about Thailand and how to retire here. Later, I started this blog.

Not done yet, from the material Hugh compiled about retiring to Thailand, he put together an ebook Retired Life in Thailand. During the process, Hugh started thinking about friends in the same boat as himself. Friends with something to say. Writer friends with something to say. And, ta da! eBooks in Thailand was born.

I realized that I know lots of people who write about their experiences in Thailand. And I set up eBooks in Thailand as Thailand’s eBook outlet for books about Thailand written by people who live or have lived here and know the country intimatately.

Hugh’s eBooks in Thailand…

For Thai language lovers, Hugh also has a talking ebook: Reading Thai Newspapers.

This book is meant to be used by the individual as a teach-yourself tool to help practice some of the skills one needs to acquire in order to read a Thai newspaper or magazine article. Reading Thai Newspapers has 13 lessons with line-by-line translations, a glossary of “newspaper” vocabulary, and all articles are accompanied by a recording of the article (innovatively embedded into the eBook itself), read by a Thai News Reader. This makes our book a Talking Textbook, something no paper textbook could be.

And at US$6.95 (225 Thai Baht), Reading Thai Newspapers is a great deal.

Be sure to check out the other ebooks on offer:

• The Expat Woman’s Guide to Living in Thailand
• Occidental Adam, Oriental Eve
• Digital Postcards of Thailand

Guaranteed, more will be added. Many more.

Enjoy…

No surprise, Thailand comes top for love…

The latest HSBC report was emailed to me just this morning (thanks Lana :-)

Expats fall in love with Thailand but not the language.

Putting Thailand aside for now… I was not surprised to find that the UK’s scores were low, but I was surprised at how low they did go. Ouch. And while I agree with most of the UK’s ranking, I disagree with the results on food quality. Except for broccoli, as France has them beat.

Thailand, on the other hand, was not much of a surprise (does anyone disagree?)

Thailand country report:

• Overall ranking: 3rd out of 26
• Quality of life: 3rd out of 26
• Ease of integration: 4th out of 26

Top reasons for staying in Thailand:

• Length of contract (53%)
• Career prospects (47%)
• Better environment/quality of life for children (35%)
• Lifestyle (28%)
• The weather (24%)

Thailand falls looooooooooow on learning the Thai language, but climbs high on finding love:

Negatively, Thailand scored poorly when it came to overcoming the language barrier – over a third (38%) of expats in Thailand rated the language barrier as the top challenge while living in the country.

Despite this, however, over a half (58%) of expats have chosen to learn more of the native tongue and, not letting language get in the way, a staggering 76% of expats have managed to make local friends already.

However, the luckiest expats for finding love were found in Thailand – some 47%
admit finding love since moving to the country. This is in stark contrast to the
worldwide average of just 20%.

What I would like to know though, are the details of the expats contributing to the Thai survey: Male, female, profession, retired, long time tourist…

About the Expat Explorer survey: The Expat Explorer survey, now in its second year, is the largest global survey of expats. Commissioned by HSBC Bank International and conducted by third party research company FreshMinds, more than 3,100 expats were questioned between February and April 2009.

You can download the entire survey at: Living the expatriate life.

Enjoy…