Frequently Asked Questions (Location Location Location edition)

I have had several people ask me questions about where I live and the daily “haps” of my life. So, your prayers have been answered. I am going to do a run down of the location here in my life.

I live in the Greater Bangkok area, in a northern “suburb” named Pakkret (or Pakkred or Pak ket, etc, depends which sign you’re looking at). I am roughly a 25-minute taxi ride from the heart of downtown Bangkok. It is technically still considered Bangkok where I am, but just the “Greater Bangkok Area.” Here are some analogies I can give you—hopefully the majority of readers will understand one or the other.

Thailand : Bangkok : Pakkret

US/Illinois : Chicago : Evanston

US/Minnesota : Saint Paul : Roseville

Get it? We’re right outside the city, but pretty much the closest “suburb” you can be in by the city.

This is the house I live in. The window on the far left 2nd floor is my window!

I am staying in the “suburbs” with my Aunt, Uncle, their soon to be 3- year old daughter Gabriella and Gabriella’s nanny (Mon-Fri) in a gated community called Bangkok Boulevard. It is pronounced "Bouleward" though because the Thais do not pronounce their 'v's like we do. I use the term “suburb” very lightly, because it is nothing like a suburb in the U.S. The gated community I live in is very clean and nice and filled with some middle to upper class Thais, but right outside the gates is a completely different story.

Here I am making cupcakes with my cousin Gabriella in our kitchen, while single handedly supporting the MN Twins in Thailand.

The gates open up to a “4-lane” (sometimes 6 or 8 lane) nameless highway. I can slightly compare it to Hwy 36 in Minnesota or Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. There is a pedestrian walkway about “7 blocks” down but the grocery store is right across the highway. So, in order to get there, we look both ways and run for our lives.

The view from a taxi (being driven by Khun Supachai apparently---I love looking at the taxi drivers' names!) on the busy road outside our community. Of course there is an elephant walking on the sidewalk and motorbikes creating their own lane...

This highway presents a very different lifestyle than the confines of Bangkok Boulevard. The sidewalk on either side of the highway is filled with litter, stray dogs and roadside food stands, sometimes all three of them together in one place. One second you’ll smell a delicious meal being presented on a questionably sanitary plate, the next second you will see, and smell, four stray dogs laying on a heap of garbage. This goes on for miles.

An example of one of the many roadside food stands right outside of our gates.

The lovely view of the side of the road once you walk out of Bangkok Boulevard.

Not too far from our house, right next to the poverty stricken streets, is “Little America.” The real name is Nichada Thani and it is where the International School of Bangkok is, which is where my Aunt and Uncle work. Nichada is a gated neighborhood that is filled with many gated communities, shops, the school, a lake, Starbucks and a whole lot of Westerners. I’d say that 99% of the families that live there aren’t Thai. There are even some cars in Nichada with the steering wheel on the left side of the car! So they have a car solely to drive around the neighborhood, because you can’t take it out on the Thai roads, where cars have steering wheels on the right side. You will also see families driving golf carts around the whole place. Not much Thai culture going on in Nichada, but a little slice from home if that's what you need...

But back to where I live: Bangkok Boulevard. When you enter the place there are guards right at the front gates. They keep us safe. Every time you pass one they salute you, click their heels together, and say “Sawat-dee-khup.” They are the smile-iest men I have ever seen. Brittany and I have nicknamed our two favorites “Khun Smiles” and “Bucky.” Khun Smiles smiles more than any other person in the world and Bucky has two big front teeth. I always reply to them with “Sawat-dee-kaa” and a big-ole-American wave. The Belisle house over here is one of maybe two houses holding Westerners, so they definitely know who we are by now and absolutely love Brit and I. Along with the gate guards we have the floaters. They keep us safe by riding around the community on their pink cruiser bikes. There is something about a man in uniform on a pink bike… These men, the guards, are some of my favorite people in Thailand, even though we cannot speak to one another except for the occasional "Taxi pi wrong-rien, korb koon ka"

One of our community's finest, sitting by his pink bike. He's taking a little break. If he knew I was taking this picture with super zoom he would be very embarrassed, stand up and salute me.

This is the Spirit House for our community. Thai Buddhists (which is incidentally most Thais) have these houses outside of their houses to ward off the evil spirits by making offerings of flowers, food, water, tea etc. to the Buddha. The offerings are usually changed daily or weekly in the case of flowers.

This is the playground in our compound. My cousin will go out sometimes to play with all of the Thai children. She speaks Thai when out there and I just smile at the non-English speaking mothers.

Our community also has a pool. I see it everyday, but have yet to go in it. The Thais aren’t fans of tanning, instead they advertise whitening cream in their drugstores. That being said, there are no lounge chairs by the pool, just one wooden bench. It is not the ideal place to lie out tanning and hop in every once in awhile, which, incidentally, is my style of swimming. Apparently in the hot months (March-May) it is too hot to even swim. The pool heats up and isn’t even desirable. I’ll keep you all updated on that.

There is also a workout room for all of the members of our community. However, Brittany and I share it mainly with two other Thai guys. There are only two treadmills, one creaky elliptical, a bike and a weight machine, so it is best when we go two-by-two. When I’m in there by myself I like to run on the treadmill and sing really loudly to my ipod…well, today I realized that the people in the office downstairs can hear me singing…I guess I’ll have to sing in my head like a normal person now.

Here are some pictures of our wonderful workout facilities. As you can see, there is a nice little lounge area in the room as well! What's on the table? The remote control for the 3 air conditioners in there.

I really enjoy where I live. I feel like I am getting the best of both worlds. I get Western-style amenities (Western toilet, Western AND Thai electrical outlets, sanitation) with Thai culture. Pretty much everything is written in Thai here, everyone speaks Thai and everyone is Thai. This gives me the opportunity to live in the real world of Thailand instead of a touristy world. I am so lucky that I have an Aunt and Uncle who live in Thailand and are willing to house, feed and entertain me!

I think that about covers where I live, if you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

Other FAQ Topics to come:

Food

Downtown

Shopping

Manners/Lifestyle

etc