Expat Blues May 31, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Leisure , add a comment
On May 31st Tik and I went to see the amateur dramatic comedy ‘Expat Blue’ at the Novotel Lotus hotel in Bangkok.
Tickets cost about 1,500 baht each and included a comprehensive buffet dinner before the show began. We’d have not known about this at all if it hadn’t been for a friend of ours spotting a mention of it in the newspaper.
It’s rare to find live plays in Bangkok and we were keen to support them. Having lived in Bangkok for nearly 7 years now and having spent pretty much all my free time with Tik for the last 4 years it’s important for us to look for different things to occupy us.
I didn’t have expecially high expectations for Expat Blues but both Tik and I were very impressed with it. Comedic aspects touch on truisms that myself and probably every expat here has comment on in frustration at times. Sketches included the farcial life of the high-society expat wives here, the Sukumvit Road tourist area that, due to vendors, elephants, touts, a completely ridiculous cycle lane that runs right through the center of the already-slim pavement is nearly impossible to walk along.
The show made both of us laugh out loud at many times. Nearly every joke hit home as something relevant to me and Tik probably fely very assured that it uisn’t jsut me who pokes fun at Thailand life.
The only thing that we really did not like was the blue transvestite character (see photo) that served at compere for the show. The character was annoying, humorless and, if you were Hindu quite insulting. It seems that the acress playing the character must have iniststed in using her trademark character as part of the play and by the erscond act I could feel my blood pressure rising when one act finished and she returned to the stage.
A newspaper preview of Expat Blues can be found here.
My First Underwater Shot May 8, 2008
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After destroying our old camera when we capsized our kayak in Koh Mak we splashed out (pun intended) on a waterproof version. This was the first shot I took. It wasn’t taken intentionally (I was trying to photograph Tik’s face but i didn’t have my goggles on). It reflects the hours of fun I’m going to have with this new toy though.
March Brides Party May 8, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Friends, Leisure , add a comment
Tik and I hosted our first big party at our condo.
Before we got married last year Tik got in contact with a group of Thais who were also getting married in March 07. The group were part of a Thai wedding website called Wedding Square and the participants discussed the preparations for their wedding there.
We’ve kept in touch with most of these people and have been invited to two parties in the last few months.
This time we invited everybody over to our place.
Neither Tik nor I are big drinkers, we don’t have a TV and liked the challenge of keeping a large group of people entertained without relying on beer and TV. Throughout the party there were about 6 couples.
The party was a great success, we’d hoped to have a few games of tennis here but a short spell of rain made the court too wet. Most of the time we stayed in the condominium, playing card games, eating lots of food and talking.
As only a few of our Thai friends speak confident English, it’s a great opportunity to practice my speaking and listening skills and the guests were all friendly and great fun.
We ended the day in the pool where we had the opportunity to test out our new waterproof camera.
Holiday in Koh Mak May 1, 2008
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We decided to take a weekend away to Koh Mak and stayed at the CocoCape Resort.
Koh Mak is a few hours drive south of Bangkok, near to Koh Chang. I’m not sure how we decided on the resort but it was probably on the recommendation of one of Tik’s friends.
We’d actually arrived during the rainy season, although, nothing to me is more relaxing than being in a small wooden hut, nice and cosy, when the rain is pouring down.
We did have spells of great weather and used it to explore the island, walk down the beach and read by the hut.
For the first two nights we were in a wooden hut that, if the resort photos are to be believed should have been situated Maldives-style over the sea, however perhaps due to the season and low tide, was about 20 meters away. Our immediate environment was just mud flats.
Service at the CoCoCape Resort was a bit lackluster and we gave up waiting to be served for breakfast one morning when the waiter just refused to even acknowledge us.
The last night we upgraded to a suite which was a little more inland but afforded us the luxury of a large bed, a bath and an elevated view of the swimming pool and the sea.
Our last full day was especially memorable because we foolishly dated to kayak to a neighbouring island as the sky began to gray. We arrived on this beatiful island in the middle of a torrential tropical storm, knowing that whether it subsized or not we had to brave the rough waters to return to the resort within a few hours.
Tik did especially well in the Kayak seeing as she only learnt to swim a few years ago. We learnt the hard way that the heavier of the two kayakers should sit at the back of a Kayak. If you don’t do this then, as we discovered, the kayak is prone to capsize. Tik struggled initially to get back in but managed it eventually. The only casualty was our camera that got bathed in seawater but thankfully we did salvage all photos.
