Batten Down the Hatches- Preparing for Floods in Bangkok

Bangkok is currently in preparation mode as flood waters from the north move closer and rain continues to fall. In our neighborhood, life seems to be going on as normal, with a few exceptions:

Shop owners building a concrete wall in front of a shop along Rama IV

Lumpini MRT station with new steel gates on the windows

Pile of sandbags outside the Silom Complex 

Nearly empty shelves at the local grocery store

While things may be deceptively calm here in our neighborhood, we are still contemplating going south to get away from the floods.

In a related note, the manufacturing plant where Eric works is currently under six feet of water. The flood waters broke through levee after levee and inundated the entire industrial park. We are still not sure what that exactly means for us and our stay here in Thailand. Hopefully, we will have some answers soon.

Image from The MacLeod Thaimes

If you are the praying type, please pray for all of the families that have been affected by these floods. Entire cities are currently underwater and the devastation is so immense, it is kind of hard to comprehend. 

If you are looking for up to date news about the flooding in Thailand and you are on Twitter- @RichardBarrow and #ThaiFloodEng are great sources of information.

Spirit House Ceremony and Grand Opening

Unlike the United States, Thailand does not separate religion from any thing, it sneaks into business life quite often. For example, when we first started building the plant one year ago, they had a Stone Laying ceremony. Another ceremony that most business in Thailand have is the Spirit House ceremony. 

For those of you that don't know, almost every building in Thailand, from large hotels to a small homes have a spirit house .This is where is where the spirits of the building live and offerings of food, flowers and incense are made to appease the spirits and to bring favor to the home or business. They are highly respected and most employees wai to them as they walk by.

When our plant's spirit house was assembled, there was a big ceremony associated with it. All the employees went outside and listened or prayed with a monk, then about 16 people lifted the main house part on top of the pedestal. Most of the people were managers, but I happened to get selected because I was close by, and because I am known world wide for my feats of strength. So I helped lift the house! Yay! And during the lifting and moving process I almost fell into a drainage ditch. Which could have been rather embarrassing and probably bad luck. Luckily I looked where I was walking and was able to avoid the fall.



Fast forward to February. The next ceremony we had was our Grand Opening. This is when all the "Big Bosses" fly to Thailand and meet local influential Thai people, like the Governor, customs officers, lawyers, police officials, US embassy people, well, you get the idea. For this ceremony there were also dancers and baby elephants. Oh, and MCing the whole thing was a famous news anchor lady. There were a lot of speeches, some dancing, watching elephants and more speeches.

After the speeches and dancing were all done, I had to be part of a mini plant tour. We each stood by a window that looked into our manufacturing bay and briefly explained our process and how awesome we are. If you know me very well, you know that I am quite shy around people I don't know. (but once I know you, I don't shut up) So it was stressful for me to talk to all these big wigs, no one laughed at me and said "you suck!" so I'll take that as a victory!

January Musings

Standard Intro:

Well, it is time for me to write another of these “blog” things. I really don’t know how to do this, so I’ll just do a brain dump, which means I’m going to ramble and meander my way around and finally just abruptly stop.

Here are some of the things that happened to me since my last edition:

About a month ago, we were coming home from work and we saw this black smoke in the distance. Then the traffic started getting really bad, almost gridlock bad. Then we saw fire trucks. As we approached the source of the smoke we found out it is a coach bus…on fire! I don’t have more information that that, but I saw a bus on fire! Weird!

That same week I received an email from a coworker and it turns out that the security guards at my work found and killed a 3.5-4 foot long king cobra snake in our parking lot! So that is exciting! For those who are coming to visit, do not Google search King Cobra- you've been warned

(image is not of the one from work...that one was missing its head)

One weekend in January we went to a place called Holland Beer Haus. It is very similar to the German Beer Haus. A bunch of people were going there after work for a coworkers birthday, but they were not going to get there until 8:00. So I went home and picked up Melanie waited an hour or so and headed back to the beer haus.

On the way back up I realized I didn’t know where I was going, well, I had an idea, but I did not know for sure. So, when we got close I pulled into a gas station and tried to ask the person behind the counter for direction. Of course I can’t speak any Thai and unfortunately they didn’t speak English. I said I wanted to go to the Holland Beer Haus, and she was like “Heineken?” I was like…wow, that makes sense. Then tried to pantomime big building, windmill, etc. She was like Oh…yeah…go that way 3 km…but this was in broken English and some Thai, but I understood and said "Thank You" and went back out to the car and we continued our journey. We arrived at the restaurant, which was exactly 3 km down the road. Our group ended up being late, but that is okay, Melanie and I enjoyed some beer and sun dried pork strips (so tasty.) When everyone showed up we watched a live band and ate lots of food. And the band sang happy birthday to the birthday boy….which brings me to another story…

I have noticed that the Thai people sing happy birthday in English….I don’t know if this is because I was present, or if it always happens that way…and the song is very similar to the happy birthday song I grew up with…but a little different…Let me sing it for you (now imagine me singing this out of key and to the with no rhythm, because I am a Rock God!)

American Version:

Happy Birthday to you / Happy Birthday to you / Happy Birthday Dear Billy Bob / Happy Birthday to you.

Thai Version:

Happy Birthday to you / Happy Birthday to you / Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday / Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to you / Happy Birthday to you / Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday / Happy Birthday to you.

Yeah they sign it twice while clapping their hands…actually I kind of like it, plus you don’t have to remember the special person’s name.

The worlds most expensive street food!

One other weekend we went out with some friends, we started the night at the most expensive street food vendor in Bangkok …but it was very, very good. While we were there a friend of a friend showed up and was talking with us as we all enjoyed a few beers. She asked what I did and I said I was a process engineer for a manufacturing company, she immediately asks if I was from Wisconsin ….I was like..huh? Yeah…why? She said she could tell by the way I said manufacturing…I still don’t understand what she means, but very impressive none the less.

We had a Thai Massage the other day. It was 2 hours long and cost about $15. Not too bad. For those who don’t know, a Thai massage is more than just someone rubbing you, they also bend you and stretch you. The lady I had this time also stood on me….a lot. I have only had 3 massages since I was here, but each time they were able to pop my hip back in place (yay) and the first two I felt great, this last one was a little different…I don’t know if it was all the stepping or what, but I am still sore (and it has been 3 days!) Now keep in mind this is not a bad sore, it is a sore like I have been working out. I think I need to find a person I like, and get her name....maybe next time.

Standard outro?? Or whatever you call the end of something

I think this is enough words for one post…If I can convince Melanie to give up the camera for a week I will do a post called…The Crazy Things I See To and From Work.

A Day in the Life as Eric

Hello internet, this is Eric. I am sitting in the van while our driver takes us home, so I thought it would be a good idea to send an update of what my typical work day is like.

I usually get up at 5:30 am and take a shower and get ready for work. At the moment, the apartment we are staying at provides a free breakfast, so at 6am Melanie and I go and eat. There is quite a bit to choose from, but I think Melanie talked about that already so I will not bore you with the details. At 6:25 I go back to the room brush my teeth and say goodbye to Melanie and head to the HTI van that is waiting for me.

The commute from Bangkok to Ayutthaya is usually uneventful, most of the trip I either talk to Greg, read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or play free cell on the cell phone. We take a toll way most of the way there, but the last portion is on some local highways. This part of the trip can take 30 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending how bad traffic is going into all the industrial parks. It is interesting to see all the motorbikes buzzing around and all the shops on the side of the road. I normally people watch this leg of the trip. We usually arrive at work around 8am, give or take 15 minutes.

They are still getting the office space setup so at the moment I work out of a double wide trailer. It isn’t too bad, it had internet and a few tables. But I can not wait to get into the office area.

For lunch, the cafeteria, or canteen, serves a variety of Thai dishes, so I grab some free steamed rice and a few dishes and a coke, all of which cost be about 50 Baht, or less than $2. It has only been a week and the food seems pretty good. Ask me again in a month and I’ll give you a new opinion. After lunch I head back to work.

Recently for work, we have been leaving around 4:30. We leave the same way we came. Most days I get home around 6pm. Melanie normally has dinner all ready and then we eat. After dinner I plop on the couch and quickly read my email. At around 8pm I go to bed. I know this is early, but you can’t imagine how much energy heat drains from you (and I don’t even work outside!) I hope that pretty soon I’ll soon I’ll be able to stay awake later and wake up earlier without being too tired, but right now I need my sleep. :)

I think starting tomorrow I am going to start waking up at 5am, this will give me 30 more minutes a day to get ready and maybe talk to some of you guys in the morning (your evening) We’ll see how that goes :)

Well, we are approaching the city now and I think that is probably enough writing for one day. Talk to you all later. If you have any other things you would like to hear my perspective on, post it in the comments section, and I’ll “write” about that next.

Truth *fist bumps the world*