May 2014
Expat Seniors in bangkok
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Baan Plai Haad sea view
Sansiri’s take on the Resort Style home With Thailand’s continued development, healthy economy and soaring popularity amongst foreign investors, the country’s property industry has been enjoying strong and steady growth. Over the last five years, housing demand throughout Bangkok, upcountry, and in beach areas has been climbing steadily. Resort Style residences have proven to be a particularly alluring option for homebuyers looking to invest in Thai property for either personal use or financial return. Sansiri, Thailand’s leading property developer, has taken the helm in exploring the lavish and environmentally immersive possibilities of this unique brand of home. The Resort Style home provides the shelter and security of a regular residence, but with all of the perks, amenities and first class services you would normally associate with a luxurious holiday resort. Baan Plai Haad Wongamat and Baan Mai Khao Phuket are two of Sansiri’s latest beachside luxury resort condominiums. They offer a selection of room sizes; extensive facilities, including beachfront pools, fully equipped exercise rooms and perfectly manicured gardens; a wide range of quality services, and 24 hour security. Furthermore, both projects boast stunning views and provide private direct access to the beach. With land prices throughout Thailand on the rise, condominiums are an inherently affordable solution for homebuyers.
DECK pool view
Mr. Apichart Chutrakul, Sansiri’s Chief Executive Officer, explains the company’s approach to design, “When we design a project, we pay close attention to every single element and the finest details. We also use the context of the local community as inspiration for the design.” Baan Mai Khao was developed according to the concept of ‘Barefoot Luxury’. It is a high class getaway immersed in a serene natural environment, with every single aspect of the project’s design, from its architecture to its finishes, implemented to evoke wind, sunshine and sand. The project has a semi outdoor lobby with a gorgeous sea view, and the landscaped gardens are lush with local vegetation. Both interior and exterior architectural elements draw inspiration from Phuket’s signature Sino-Portuguese heritage. This meticulous attention to detail is something which is common to all of Sansiri’s endeavours. From its cost effective one million Baht condominium units to its hundred million Baht luxury estates, Sansiri awarded ‘Best Developer’ at the 2013 Thai Property Awards - prides itself on using only the highest quality production materials, and offering superior services that realistically take into account the broad needs of its customers. Sansiri’s other Phuket Resort Style condominium, The Deck, takes comfort to a whole new level - literally. Situated within walking distance of the white sands of Patong Beach, The Deck’s rooftop relaxation area, complete with a 50 metre lap pool, Jacuzzi, and plenty of room to stretch one’s legs and bask in the sun’s rays, provides an incredible panoramic view of Phuket’s resplendent coast. Lush green trees, gentle breezes and a seemingly endless ocean horizon make for an unrivalled elevated living experience. In the exquisite and quiet seaside town of Hua Hin, Sansiri offers an array of projects that perfectly accompany the beautiful sunshine, clear blue skies and undulating sea. Summer is a condominium resort which offers a unique “Beach Cottage” style that is inspired by the traditional architecture from the beach front holiday homes of yesteryear. This condominium gives you a truly relaxing approach to take it easy every day. Summer is located in the charming Khao Takiab area, a cosy neighbourhood community with its own beach areas, restaurants and bars, and other seaside activities just a few steps away. Finally, looking north to Chiang Mai, Sansiri has recently established Setthasiri San Sai. Embedded in the mountainous region of Doi Suthep, the one-of-akind luxury project guarantees the freshest air, cool morning mists and some of the most stunning scenery to be found in Thailand. Setthasiri San Sai adheres to a grand, regal like design that draws inspiration
from traditional Lanna architecture. From the giant fully equipped clubhouse to the finest details of the project’s structure, all elements are distinctly Lanna. The long walkway that runs parallel to the swimming pool is perfect for relaxing strolls, and there are plenty of intuitively calculated vantage points throughout the project that offer exquisite views of Chiang Mai’s beautifully preserved natural environment.
Setthasiri San Sai home view
Summer pool view
With land prices increasing uniformly throughout Thailand and more savvy homebuyers looking for that little extra incentive when purchasing property, it is no wonder that the luxury style home has become such a sought after investment. Unlike with mature markets, such as those of the UK, USA and Australia, investing in a steadily emerging market like Thailand has the potential to maximise capital appreciation in the long term. Increasingly popular holiday destinations like Chiang Mai, Khao Yai, Pattaya and Phuket each have a distinct charm that makes them uniquely attractive as homes away from home. One of Sansiri’s key strengths is effectively incorporating these innate cultural and environmental characteristics into the designs of its projects. With the company continuing to expand its operations in country and beach areas, property buyers can expect to see even greater innovation in, and diversification of, the Resort Style home market. For more information on developments, please visit sansiri.com
Contents
Editor Kristen Paes kristen@elbkk.com
In this issue...
Deputy Editor Bea Toews bea@elbkk.com Features Editor Veronica Taylor veronica@elbkk.com
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Retiring in Thailand
Photography Daniel Herron danielherron3@gmail.com Danielherronphotography.com
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Why I live in Chiang Mai
KT Watson katwaa@gmail.com http://photogr.aphi.ca Art Dew Piyaman dew@elbkk.com 089 144 7837
Editorial Contributors Agneta de Bekassy Judith Coulson Jane Haddow Debbie Warner Pamela Burgin Deb Buckle Eileen Marrinan Bruce Braly Gary White
Angela Chan Steve Courso Doug Lambert Rose Groening Cees “KC” Cuijpers Neil Kilah Michael Whitaker Claire Schultz Terry Weir
16 The weight of generations 18
Back to the old country
22
Smart food for the over fifties
25
GivingBackAssoc
26
Healthy recipes
28
Time to take a balance test
30
Senior exercise - think fit, be fit
32 Three strikes and still not out 36
Where there’s a Will there’s a way
38
Getting a Thai driving license
41
Seniors fashion
43
Expat Seniors makeover
44
Fifty shades of grey (hair)
Advertising Sales Peerarat Voracharusrungsri (P) peerarat@elbkk.com 086 535 1544 Elle Chaikaew elle@elbkk.com 085 237 6444
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PediManiCure in Hua Hin
48
The grey nomad explores Napel
52
Reflections on a trip to Kanchanaburi
Administrator Kantira Chayawong (Porche) admin@elbkk.com 084 656 0593
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Made in Thailand
62
The modern art scene in Bangkok
Office Manager Angkana Chalat (Pao) pao@elbkk.com 081 266 6476
General Manager Sasi Kantapak sasi@elbkk.com 091 426 5624 Publisher and Managing Editor Nick Argles nick@elbkk.com 089 721 3384 Office Address: 20/70 Prommitr, Klongton Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110 tel. 02 258 8352, 02 259 3661, 02 259 7007 Fax : 02 259 7008
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Visit www.expatseniorsinthailand.com to see our website and to see our new facebook page www.facebook.com/ExpatSeniorsinThailand - please ‘like’ us now! The information contained in this magazine or website, while believed to be correct, is not guaranteed. Expat Seniors in Thailand magazine or website and its directors, employees and consultants do not accept any liability for any error, omission or misrepresentation in relation to the information. Nor does it accept any loss, damage, cost or expense incurred by any person whatsoever arising out of or referable to the information displayed within Expat Seniors in Thailand magazine or website. Any view expressed by a journalist is not necessarily the view of Expat Seniors in Thailand magazine or website. No part of Expat Seniors in Thailand magazine or website can be reproduced or copied without the express consent of the publisher.
From the editors ... Dear readers Once in a while, someone makes a comment that sparks something in your head, and an idea seems to appear from nowhere. I liken it to the Eureka moment that Archimedes was said to have had when discovering volume. This is what it was like when our wonderful deputy editor, Bea Toews, suggested we put together a magazine for Seniors.
It has been four months since that Eureka moment occurred, and after much thought, inspiration and hard work, we are finally here. The inaugural issue of Expat Seniors in Thailand has been a work of passion and joy that we hope each and every one of our readers will enjoy. For myself, it has provided me with the opportunity to develop a new understanding and appreciation of the older generations of expats who have so much to offer us all, and seem to have been (until now) overlooked. I have relished every moment of working with our Seniors team, including Bea Toews herself as well as Victoria Taylor (features editor) and so many others. It is my hope that Expat Seniors will be much more to you than a publication, but a means to making the most out of what I firmly believe should essentially be the best years of all of our lives. Thailand is indeed a land of opportunity, and it is my wish that each of you will find doors being opened, no matter how small. With the birth of this magazine, it is my intention that you each have the opportunity to have your voice heard, share your experiences and knowledge with one another, and set the benchmark for expats of all ages who live in Thailand. Please enjoy the articles and imagery within, and lastly, if you do enjoy what you read, please allow me to ask for your support in return. By subscribing to our magazine you can not only ensure the publication of future issues, but the continual improvement of content, and the growth of your own community. Signing off with optimism about the future. Kristen Paes Editor kristen@elbkk.com Expat Seniors 6
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from the Deputy Editor My choice of Thailand as a place to live is based on the fact that Thailand is a beautiful country, with wonderful food and a deep and rich culture. It is different enough from my two home countries (Canada and Australia) that it is fascinating to me. It has the comforts of home that I can access, and if I absolutely must have maple syrup or vegemite, I can find them. I suspect that many grey nomads feel the same about their choice of Thailand for a winter or a permanent home. There are no barriers to prevent an expat from experiencing Thai culture to the degree that he or she wants. Weddings, funerals, temple fairs, schools, and festivals, whatever occasions expats want to learn about are open to them. On the other hand, no one will look askance at the expat buying croissants and insisting on coffee for breakfast, or needing Guinness to help them feel at home. Expat Seniors is a quarterly magazine that I hope people will keep, pass on to friends, use as a reference and as a source of information. I want it to be appealing to people who have lived here in Thailand for some time, as well as to those who have newly arrived. I want any expat who can read English to find something entertaining, interesting, new or beautiful in this magazine, and perhaps something comforting too. Maybe the knowledge that others are dealing with the same joys and challenges that you experience will be of comfort. I would like to think that readers will use the magazine to build networks, to gain competencies in living here, or to add to what they already know about Thailand. The articles in these magazines are written by seniors, for seniors. Comments, advice, information, suggestions, complaints, or if you would like to contribute, we would like to hear from you. Write to us with suggestions about what you would like us to include. You will get the magazine you want by being an active part of its growth. Visit Expat Seniors online and get a subscription so that you have a hard copy to take with you, or to keep as a reference wherever you may be. Bea Toews Deputy Editor bea@elbkk.com Expat Seniors
Skyping in touch Skype is an online communication platform that you may be using to keep in touch with your family and friends. Through its free video component you can see your loved ones face to face. Utilising this online tool has enabled expats across the world to stay connected with loved ones everywhere. It is a free service, and you can use Skype on your phone as well as on your computer. Installing a world clock on your desktop so you know when to call is probably my number one tip for those who have to factor in time differences across the regions. Most people are familiar with Skype (in its free version) but fewer people are aware of the additional features that I have described for you below. Dial Your Number Through a subscription you can have your own designated phone number that others can dial: Skype to Go. You choose which area you want your number to represent, pay for the service, and share with friends and family. Once your number is dialed it will forward directly to your phone. Be sure to get a subscription for this feature. Subscriptions Subscriptions are available for when you want to place a call to your loved ones without waiting for them to sign into Skype. You would dial their phone number for a fee and the minutes are taken from your monthly subscription. Subscriptions are also used for when someone dials your Skype number. You choose how many minutes you would like to pay for monthly. The range is from 60 to 180 minutes. In some countries you can subscribe with a flat rate, and top up when your credit is running low.
Skype on Facebook This feature has been available for over a year now on Facebook. The video icon appears in the chat, and once you click on it, you can dial the person directly from Facebook. If you or the other person has not downloaded the software, you will be asked to do so before being able to place a video call, and the software download only takes a few seconds. How convenient to already be on Facebook and to make a call directly from there! There are so many ways to keep in touch and for the most part it is quite easy. You can even download Skype for your mobile as cellular technology has enabled most phones to be able to host this video component.
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Retiring in Thailand By Cees “KC” Cuijpers
Thailand is becoming one of the most popular countries for people choosing to spend their retirement abroad. Many find this country an ideal place to spend their retirement years, and for many reasons.
Lifestyle options range from top notch luxury to highly affordable, and all are enhanced by a delightful climate, an advantageous cost of living and a stunning natural environment. There are a myriad of reasons for Thailand’s popularity as a retirement destination. Anyone who has holidayed in Thailand will most likely have had the time of their life! It is a beautiful country which has a lot going for it. The scenery is magnificent, some of the beaches are unbeatable, the food is delicious, and the people are friendly. I guess this is why it is quite rightly known as ‘The Land of Smiles’. If you are coming up to retirement age, and feel the need to get away from your own environment you will be hard pushed to find a more suitable retirement place than here. Now before you consider Thailand as a destination, it’s important that you consider the option as objectively as possible to decide if it is the right move for you. Let’s look at some of the things to factor into your decision making process if you are considering such a move, whether for yourself or a family member.
and try and decide on the sort of lifestyle you would like to become accustomed too, and which area will most easily facilitate this. After all, your retirement should be some of the best years of your life! With a little bit of planning and forethought you will have the time of your life doing exactly what you want to do in Thailand!
The financial aspect While it is cheaper to live in Thailand than most western countries, it is not as cheap as it used to be! You should take some time to make a list of your current total assets including savings, investments and pensions to see if life here is truly affordable for you. You must bear in mind that certain investments and or pensions are paid out in your own currency, so exchange rates (which naturally fluctuate) have to be taken in consideration.
Hospitality and climate Ask any foreigner what they like about Thailand and the Thais themselves are going to be high on their list. Thai people are very welcoming, and you will find that they are (generally speaking) happy to have outsiders making a home in their country. For the retiree that wants to live in a warm climate, Thailand is the place for them. Depending on what part of the country one decides to live in, the temperatures are generally warm or even hot year around. If you live near the water, there are usually cooling breezes that tend to modulate the heat.
Lifestyle Think long and hard about your retirement 8
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Food Thailand is famous for its great food and this is not lost on the expat retirement community. Thailand is still primarily an agriculturally based country. This means that a wide selection of fruits and vegetables are available to purchase every day from the local markets. Not only is it fun to go shopping daily for your next meal, it is also a very healthy approach to nutrition. This can be very important for older people who need a cheap supply of high quality foods. If you don’t like to cook, then Thailand is also the place for you. Local street vendors are numerous and cheap, and you can easily get great food from curbside restaurants that are not only delicious but can also be quite nutritious.
Cost of living The cost of living in Thailand is relatively low when compared to Western Europe, Australia or the USA. While the infrastructure may not always be the greatest, most public services are more than adequate. Housing is not particularly expensive, unless you want to live in some of the high end expatriate communities (which can be rather pricey). Local wages are quite low so hiring gardeners, maids and other domestic help is generally also an affordable option. This can be particularly attractive to those who may require help on a daily basis, for a variety of reasons, including health. Healthcare One very important item to consider when searching for a place to retire is the healthcare system available in your lists of prospective cities. In this area, Thailand is one of the leading countries in the world, with the hospitals here being world renowned for their high quality and wide range of services available. You definitely don’t have to worry about finding affordable and high quality healthcare in Thailand!
community. You can buy or rent a detached house, a townhouse, or a house in a village environment. Such villages range in style and exclusivity dependent upon what you want to pay. The accommodation is built to exacting standards, and the fixtures and fittings are just what you are used to. In all of the coastal towns there are retirement villages available and may be worth considering depending on your requirements. These residences are built in tropical Thai-Bali or modern European style, and offer complete functionality, comfort and quality. On a complex like this a retiree is offered everything he or she could want including medical assistance and care. Retirement
Accommodation You will find many different types of accommodation to choose from in all areas of Thailand. Apart from a wide choice of hotels, guesthouses and other hospitality venues there is a large variety of condominiums in a variety of locations, and to suit any budget. These range from small bachelor pads to spacious five bedroom penthouse suites with their own swimming pools, and as such can range for low maintenance to requiring significant upkeep. Of course there are also plenty of houses to choose from with most of them located on a gated Expat Seniors in bangkok
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homes throughout Thailand are stunning and offer swimming pools and Jacuzzi’s, restaurants, gym and fitness areas, a medical centre and highly trained staff, and are often set in stunning landscaped gardens. Class is most definitely the name of the game here. Of course this is not for all of us, although compared to Europe and other Western countries are extremely affordable for yourself or perhaps for your parents. Don’t misjudge these types of facilities in Thailand as being anything like those you may be used to seeing in your home countries either, as most of them are fully geared to accommodate a very active lifestyle! For example, in Pattaya you can live in luxurious surroundings whilst you are only 20 minutes away from the centre of town, as well as the beaches. If golf is your thing you have easy access onto the highways and byways out of town. These will take you to one of the many top class golf courses which are within easy striking distance of all of the coastal towns. If you are looking for the finer things in life, and would like to spend your retirement years in relative luxury, then such an option is most definitely worth considering. Learn the lingo It is true that in a number of places (especially in the vast majority of holiday resorts and hotels) you will generally be understood if you can speak English. While it is not totally necessary for you to learn the Thai language you will find that if you have at least a basic vocabulary and understanding your time here will be more enjoyable. It will enable you to get far more from your retirement experience whilst living in this beautiful country, and the Thai people are always appreciative of attempts to communicate in their native language, no matter how rudimentary the level.
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Which city is right for me? Thailand itself is not a single destination; each location comes with its distinctive personality and unique attractions. If you are thinking of stunning scenery and a relaxed lifestyle then Chiang Mai is most definitely worth considering. If you crave the ocean and a faster pace of life, then look towards the beautiful beaches of Phuket. If you enjoy living in a large, cosmopolitan city then consider Bangkok. Hua Hin provides tranquility and easy access to Bangkok. My personal destination of choice is Pattaya. This seaside city has absolutely everything going for it. You can mix the raucous with the quiet, and this mix extends to food options. Every sort of dining experience is available, from the street hawker on the corner, to some of the most wonderful fine dining establishments. It is located on the Eastern Seaboard, and is situated just 150kms South East of Bangkok, and will only take you around two hours to get here from Bangkok’s main airport (the motorway’s and dual carriageways make this journey an easy one). If you haven’t got a friend to collect you, and do not wish to use a taxi the bus service is excellent, and cheap. I have been living in Thailand since 1997 and can tell you that the list of reasons for why you should choose it as your destination to spend your retirement could go on and on, but for the open minded person with the right level of expectations, Thailand can become an ideal place to call home. Semi-retired or still working like myself, Thailand is the ideal environment. Whatever it is that you do or will be doing, always remember you are a guest in one of the most beautiful countries in the world! Respect that and enjoy it! Cees “KC” Cuijpers is the MD Partner of Town & Country Property, and the founder of Movers & Shakers Thailand KC@TownCountryProperty.com as well as a long term, happy expat.
Book review Elephant Moon “The moon rose behind them as they clambered up the rock, framing a tusker against its silvery disc. “Elephant Moon,” said Grace…”
Fifty three elephants that carry half-caste children (whilst guided by their handlers) from Bishop Strachan’s school in Yangon part of the way to India in 1942 are the sentimental heroes of the Elephant Moon. The human protagonists love, hate, murder, forgive and find salvation in the way of humans everywhere. A plucky school teacher, Grace Collins, moves children from Yangon to Mandalay in an old bus, departing at the beginning of the occupation of Yangon. Then, when the bus shudders to a stop and the pursuing Japanese army kills the driver, an elephant herd stops on its way to India and takes the children with them. There is romance, there is betrayal and there is a nice twist at the end of the tale. Two stories are loosely combined in this historical fiction. The students from Bishop Strachan’s school were evacuated in one story and the author is still trying to locate the one known survivor. In the other story, over a hundred Gurka wives and children were taken over the mountains into Eastern India on the backs of teak working elephants. Mackrell, the tea plantation owner who organised the Gurka rescue, was given the George medal for his efforts. John Sweeney wrote Elephant Moon, his first novel, in 2012. Sweeney worked for the Observer until 2001 when he joined the
BBC. He has written five nonfiction books. He says about Elephant Moon: “My novel may be complete rubbish. I’ve never written one before. But I hope it captures something of the mood of the time, the miserable evacuation from Rangoon, the flight of the Heaven-Born, the disbelief that British rule in the East was dying, the cruelty of the Japanese, the fear of betrayal by the Jiffs, the Indian soldiers who defected to the Japanese side, the gentle heroism of the retreating British and Indian soldiers, the despair on the impossible trek to India – and then the chance of elephant rescue. It is a bloody good story and one I feel honoured to tell.” It is a bloody good story. Perhaps the heroine is too beautiful and the villain too villainous. In compensation, musings on the nature of loyalty and on personal integrity are thought provoking and based on Sweeney’s experience covering conflicts when working for The Observer. Perhaps creating a path on a mountain slope may not be possible. But the difficulty of jungle trekking and the rage of flash floods during monsoon rains are well described and believable. Not everything has to be just so to make a good story. A reader with any knowledge of or interest in the World War II Asian arena will acknowledge the accuracy of the events and appreciate the way the story is brought to life. And the reader will see why Donne said that “the elephant is nature’s great masterpiece…the only harmless great thing.”
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Why I live in
Chiang Mai
By Neil Kilah
Neil has lived full time in Chiang Mai for 2 years after long periods living in China and the Middle East. Why do I live in Chiang Mai? Good question. Examining why I live here has been an interesting and revealing exercise. Inertia is a strong force, and there is certainly nothing pushing or pulling me away from Chiang Mai (CM). So that’s why I stay, but why do I choose to live here?
Summing up why I like CM in one word is easy: ‘scale’. The scale of the city itself but also of what is available and even how things are done here. Hopefully what follows will clarify. When forced by friends who don’t live here to sum up CM I say it is ‘big little city’. That is, it has all most people could need but in a small package. OK, enough generalities, here are a few categories that may help you understand why CM is my preferred home. The environment. Don’t come here for the beach - although there are plenty of places to swim. Do come here for the long cool season, the true variation in climate and generally gentle weather. With my windows open I can get by all year with just fans and a warm quilt from October to late February. The hot season is draining but it is short and humidity is often low. Once the rains start in April you know it will get progressively cooler. And of course there is the notorious ‘burning season’. From March until the rains start it can be smoky and uncomfortable. Some expats plan holidays away from CM during this time. It can be quite annoying, but knowing it is for a few short weeks and that skies will be clear and the air fresh for the rest of the year, I can cope.
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Looking over CM from the rainforest cloaked slopes of Doi Suthep - as everyone in CM should regularly - it is a remarkably low rise, leafy place. The countryside is close and the hills easy to access. I live less than 8 kilometres from the centre of the Old City (‘Inside the Moat’ in local reckoning) and am mostly surrounded by farmland. This is a big part of ‘scale’. Wherever you live, not being in the city is easy to do. Many of the tourist and recreation attractions are natural or at least set in the forest and hills nearby. That city/country balance is very easy to achieve. Getting here … and there. I was brought up in suburban Australia and so was likely born clutching a set of car keys in my pudgy baby hands. After years of living and working in countries where I didn’t drive, a pleasure of living in CM is that it is easy to have a vehicle. More importantly, I can drive anywhere, usually quickly, and park outside! Being a ‘country town’ getting around by car or scooter is the norm and I love it. The roads are remarkably good. There is a very efficient ring road system and apart from those close to the Old City, major roads are wide and quick. Other than a few hours when local folks are going to or from work, getting around is quick and easy and doesn’t need a lot of planning.
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A traffic delay of more than a few minutes has me muttering to myself and launching internal road rage. How our perceptions change. The downside is that away from the Old City regular public transport is light on. I travel internationally a few times each year so air connections were a consideration in choosing a place to live. Coming and going is convenient. There are many daily domestic connections with Suvarnabhumi and many more with Don Muang. International direct connections are mostly to North Asia but also to Southeast Asia. I fly Air Asia often so the direct flight to their hub in Kuala Lumpur is convenient. CM airport is small, quick and easy to arrive at and leave (immigration queues are rare) and very close to downtown and the ring road. That scale thing again. Driving north to villages in the border mountains and to cross over to Myanmar (the Mae Sai border is the visa run of local choice) or Laos is easy on good roads. A regular option for my visitors is a 2/3 day drive up through the rainforest and ethnic (Karen, Hmong, etc.) villages of the mountains then along the Mekong River, via the Golden Triangle, to the French Indochinese towns along the Laos border. A nice trip. If you like touring and the natural environment you could spend years discovering places near and far. I need to … My needs may be too simple but (so far) there is nothing I have not been able to find, buy or do in CM. Shopping is easy. There has been a mall building boom in the last year and there are many to choose from. The brand new Central Festival is the biggest in Southeast Asia and there are at least 2 new lifestyle malls (i.e. classy shops with international brands). Each new centre has a multiplex cinema. CM has had an excellent chain of specialty ‘western’ supermarkets for a number of years. So far 14
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nothing ‘western’ I need for cooking has been beyond supply. My local market Mee Chok/Ruamchok is a pleasure. The clean, friendly Thai market is next to a medium sized ‘western’ centre with a supermarket, banks, restaurants, 24 hour McDonalds, specialty shops, services etc. Two nights a week are ‘big’ market nights with the whole car park taken over by travelling vendors selling everything from hot food to hot pants. I need to travel no more than 1 kilometre to get damned near everything I need. I think that is a common experience in CM. Though I only visit when I have guests, the tourist and handicraft markets are fun. The Night Bazaar covers near everything, the Saturday and especially the Sunday walking street markets have more interesting handmade things and a nicer atmosphere. More interesting, I find, is the handicraft outlet route. In a few short kilometres you can cover celadon, cotton, silverware, silk, jewellery, Sa paper, umbrellas and other crafts. Shopping is fine but as expats there are other services we need. The ‘big little city’ effect is most noticeable here. For a small place that is the regional administration centre CM has a remarkable range of services. CM Immigration is underresourced but my opinion is that the staff gets things done efficiently with humour and grace. Again, scale helps. It can be crowded but the numbers are not huge. Some may disagree, but it is all about preparation and attitude. There are major (UK, USA) consulates here, an interesting range of other consulates (France, Korea, etc.) and other diplomatic representation by Consuls or Honourary Consuls (Germany, Greece, Australia etc.). Some consular matters may not be covered by local representatives (particularly Honourary
Consuls) and occasionally local expats need to go to Bangkok. It is a fact to consider. On a personal note I am an Australian Justice of the Peace and provide this free service to all Australians as a supplement to services provide by the Australian Honourary Consul.
homes. Lanna Care Net is an excellent group that has developed a very practical ‘safety net’ for aging expats. I have some small involvement with this group and admire their work in educating expats on this aspect of living here. I am confident about getting older here.
Thinking of the other services I use, most are easy. Anything I don’t do online can be done at Tesco or 7/11. The few encounters with other local bureaucracies (such as car registration and driving licenses) have been efficient and pleasant.
Show them the money. Living anywhere only because it is cheaper is never a good idea. I see the lower cost of the north a bonus rather than a rationale. Cheaper for me is getting more for the same money. My 20,000B per month rent gets me a house (villa) on a large block with mature trees in an older moo baan; much more than in many other places. Shopping in the local market makes daily provisions cheap. CM is still really a farming town and the range of fresh local produce – both tropical and temperate is always a delight.
I’m bored. Not. When eventually I need them I know there are many groups and activities for expats. There are active expat clubs and many church based groups that offer a range of things to do and join. There are plenty of local cultural activities and a very active local classical music scene base around one of the universities. The local Lanna culture is deep, distinctive and ubiquitous. Architecture, clothing, food, all have a local character that I find pleasant to live amongst. Festivals of all types are a big deal here. The best is Loy Krathong in November. A magical time of cool nights, alfresco dining and dark skies filled with thousands of lanterns (khom loy). Being a tourist city there is a disproportionate number of international restaurants, plenty of nightlife in a compact area and with less sleaze than some places I can think of. I have read a criticism that CM lacks ‘edge’ and excitement. Maybe, but my preference is comfort in a pleasant natural environment so I’m not a good judge of edge. If you want to volunteer time and skills CM is ‘NGO city’ with a wide range of ways to help others. Getting on a bit. We are all of certain age and some of us really show it. The infrastructure for seniors is good here and developing. Medical care is as good as any major Thai city but costs are lower as I understand. There is a growing number of western retirement villages and care
Hell is other people. Jean-Paul Sartre really knew human nature. Regardless of costs, cars and connections, it is relationships that make for a contented life. CM is an increasingly popular place to retire and the expats I meet who live here long term are mostly regular folks. Away from the intensely touristic areas local people are fine – relaxed and welcoming. Much of that is natural Thai hospitality some is also because CM is still at heart a country town and country people are more laidback. I always feel CM is an easy place to connect with ‘ordinary people’ – both Thai and expat. Getting back to the question. I live here because it is easy and cheaper to have the lifestyle I want. It is cleaner and greener than many other places. Local culture is interesting and local people easy to get along with. It has all the things I want and the services I need. It’s not perfect but when visitors (move here and they will) comment on the relaxed pace of life, the quality and variety of local food, the range of things to do and how friendly they find local people it does remind me of why I live in Chiang Mai. Expat Seniors in bangkok
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The weight of generations: an interview with Jas Abbot By Bea Toews
His great grandfather was an explorer and worked in British Intelligence until he converted to Islam and sided with the east against the west. His grandfather was a scholar and he gave British and American secrets to the Russians and his father was an Oxford scholar. He is none of these. And unless something changes, there will be no continuation of this line of gentlemen adventurers. Jas Abbot never married (he twice narrowly escaped, as he describes it), and has no children.
Jas sold his bookshop (The Yellow and Blue) in Hua Hin while I was visiting my friends in Moscow. I asked him why he sold it without telling me it was for sale. He said that he hadn’t seen me for a while and thought I had left Thailand. I explained that I was travelling in Russia and he said that he had visited once, when it was still the USSR. I said that it must have been grim, but he laughed and said that he was a guest of the KGB so things were smooth sailing for him even then. What an opening! Why was he the guest of the KGB? He went to visit his grandfather, who was British and had spied for the Soviet Union for many years before almost being exposed and imprisoned, or worse, as a traitor. Had I heard of Kim Philby? I had. Could I interview Jas? I could. Jas and I had lunch at a small hotel in Hua Hin. He brought several photographs with him. The first was of his grandfather in his Moscow apartment, reading Pravda. Jas said that his grandfather always had enough to eat and was treated well. This was in 1967 when the rest of the western world was in comparative comfort and the citizens of the Soviet Union were still looking toward the future, the present being fairly unattractive. Compared to the average Soviet citizen, Philby lived well. He could never go back to England to live, and he embraced his Russian life, with his last marriage being to a Russian woman. A second photo he presented is of Philby, his Russian wife, and Jas’ father. Jas’ 16
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mother, Josephine, who is Philby’s oldest daughter, took the photo and there are copies of it in the Getty picture files. The family looks very happy. Kim Philby (1912-1988) was a spy from the time he was in Cambridge, one of the Cambridge Five. He rose through the ranks in M16 and became head of the Washington desk, which meant that he could deliver both British and American information to Russia. Suspicion fell on him in 1963 and he fled to the Soviet Union. His life is fully documented in film and books, including My Silent War, Philby’s autobiography. Jas’ mother Josephine was Philby’s eldest child by his second wife Eileen (he married four times). Philby’s first wife is thought to have recruited him as a Soviet spy. He had five children with his second, the third marriage was cut short by his escape to the Soviet Union, and the fourth was his Russian wife. I asked Jas if his grandfather was unhappy with the way Communism had turned out, especially as he had betrayed his home country for the ideals of Communism. Jas thought not, as Philby had ideals and lived by them, something that few people do or have done. In My Silent War Philby says “In order to betray, one must first belong”. He did not regard his actions as a betrayal, because he felt he had never really ‘belonged’ to the British Establishment. In his view, he had been loyal to the only society he believed in. Apparently Philby thought that Gorbachev was leading the party in the right direction, not realising that this man’s policies rang the death knell of Communism.
Philby died before he could see the results of Gorbachev’s actions. Did Jas have ideals for which he would act as consistently as his grandfather had? No, he didn’t. He had not been able to settle down at all, he didn’t finish high school, leaving before he finished his A Levels. Much to the consternation of his family, he couldn’t settle after coming back from his summer holidays. I thought that he must have got that from his great granddad. And who was his great granddad? He was St John Philby, an explorer of the Arabian Peninsula who knew (and didn’t much like) Lawrence of Arabia. He was an orientalist who converted to Islam and was employed by the English Secret Service. He was consulted as early as 1922 about the question of Palestine, but when he sided with the Arabic view, he also quit the secret service. He was bit of a wanderer, as is Jas. Jas, in contrast, took up construction after he finished a Trades Course. His line of work, and his wanderlust, has taken him around the world. From Britain to Roatan, Honduras was the first step. “When I went to the Honduras it was paradise. When I left the Honduras it had the highest murder rates in the world” he says. “At first, the place was an out-of-the-way paradise for divers and backpackers. Then the big hotel chains arrived and built up the islands. Wealthy tourists flocked to the Honduras and poor from the mainland flocked to take advantage of the tourists, honestly or dishonestly. “
the menu”. When the island became too violent, Jas moved to Thailand. Once there, he bought a secondhand bookshop and ran it for a year, and sold it when the tedium became too great. Not only did he dislike the daily grind, but also labour laws prevented him from doing much in the shop. He could not do anything that a Thai staff member can do, or he risked losing his work permit. The restrictions and daily doldrum was all too much. Where will he go from here? What can a man do whose family seems to have done it all? He is not sure, he says. He has several interests, one of which would use his construction and management skills and knowledge. I can empathise with a person whose wandering spirit pushes him on to new horizons and different places. With his family’s colourful history, he may find the present mundane unless he moves on to new places and exciting ventures. Thailand may be only another place that he passes through, another step in the process of creating his own identity in the shadow of his ancestors. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/ obituaries/son-of-most-reviled-man-in-britainrefused-to-turn-his-back-on-him-20090903-f9uy.html
http://www.theartsdesk.com/tv/spy-who-wentcold-bbc-four
Jas ran a dive shop in Roatan, also making his living from the tourists, and gained his full diving qualifications. Whilst living there he also tried his hand at cooking “Not much, mind. Just once a week I would be the guest chef at a local hotel to advertise Expat Seniors in bangkok
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Back to the old country By Michael Whitaker
As an expat living in Thailand I have only gone back home (if that’s the right word: I’m not sure myself anymore) when circumstances have dictated. Weddings, funerals, Christmas etc. But this time my visit was for pure pleasure, as if I were visiting a foreign country for the first time.
Even within the confines of an aeroplane, the unpredictable British weather can be felt in the way people behave during their journey in the air. Strange movements not experienced for many a day, become common place. People start to put their heads through openings in clothing as that extra layer of jumper or overcoat is applied to the body in anticipation of an impending arrival. It is early spring in
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Britain, and though for the residents of these fair isles, it is a time when the weather starts to get warmer, in comparison to Thailand it is unbelievably cold. So protection is needed, as without it, cold kills. Now fully armed against the elements, we step on solid ground. It is good to be back on terra firma (or terra cotta as John Prescott, former deputy
prime minister, once said after a particularly bumpy flight). No matter how polluted, there is nothing like breathing in natural fresh air. An air that can be only palely imitated by air conditioning. After all those hours of flying, here I am in Britain at last… or at least almost! Joining the end of a snaking queue to go through passport control, I spy a large baffling notice above the desk where the passports are checked – UK Border. It would seem that beyond the notice there is Britain, but which country am I in while I wait in the queue? Clearly not the UK. Suddenly I am in a stateless hinterland. I start recalling John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ –
trees to die. It really is very strange to come from Thailand (where all the plants are in full bloom) to a barren landscape of dead trees. No leaves, just branches reaching out to the sky, but in a few weeks’ blossoms will appear and spring will be truly under way. Now we are just waiting for that transformation. Thailand does not have anything quite so dramatic in its seasonal changes. In the present hiatus between winter and spring, one colour stands out in contrast to the green of the grass – yellow. It is a colour rarely seen in the Thai
‘Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do…’ If I am not in any country, then there is no law that could be applied to me. Interesting! Perhaps I could…
‘Next please!’
My revelries are interrupted by a pleasant but somewhat aggressively titled Border Force Officer, who inspects my passport and after a few steps, I manage to enter the UK officially. My destination is my home town of Tisbury in the south of England. Not very big, it nestles in the Wiltshire downs near the Dorset border. At this time of the year, Mother Nature seems to have abandoned her responsibilities and left the Expat Seniors in bangkok
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countryside, but here in England daffodils cluster in the hedgerows and fields, flowers symbolic of rebirth and growth. Someone should write a poem about them! What changes have there been in Tisbury since my last visit? Two of the town’s five pubs have closed. The green grocer has changed into an ‘olde worlde’ gift shop selling garden furniture. On the edge of town there is a new housing estate built in a traditional style of which Prince Charles would approve. There are rumours that the Co-op (the Thai equivalent is the 7/11 store) is going to expand, but the Post Office might close. Otherwise nothing much changes. The shops still close early on Wednesday afternoons, the bells of the 16th century church still ring out when there is a wedding, and boy racers still use the high street as a racing track for their puny motorbikes. If we had a village green I am sure there would be cricket played on there each summer: Tisbury is that kind of place and long may it be so. But what of the people themselves, has there been a change there? Mostly not, people are still as friendly and spiteful as before. Friendly, because you can walk down the street and almost guarantee that a complete stranger will say a cheery hello to you as you pass by for no other reason than it seems the natural thing to do. Spiteful, because in a small town there are always going to be petty jealousies and gossip, and none of that has abated. But a less pleasant element has emerged since I have been away and it is at this point that I am going to claim the age old right of the senior citizen to proclaim that ‘it wasn’t like that in my day’.
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Without wishing to appear too snobbish, there seems to be a courser element in society than there once was. There is even a 21st century name for such people: chavs. Chavs are characterised as being lazy, greedy, loud and loutish. They are just out for themselves. Unfortunately the chav mentality has pervaded institutions that should know better and seem more concerned about seeing what they can get away with than providing the service that we have a right to expect. Since arriving in the UK, the domestic news (the type that one does not get onto the more internationally orientated BBC World Service) has highlighted the continuing scandal of high street banks miss-selling insurance on ‘an industrial scale’ and now trying to avoid paying millions of pounds in compensation to the victims of their scams; someone high up in the Met (the London police force) has shredded evidence of police corruption although a copy has been found, so justice might still be done; staff in care homes for the elderly have deliberately neglected those in their care and treated them cruelly. I could go on. Is it something to do with getting old that means the passage of time almost obliges you to look back nostalgically to a better past? Or is there really no integrity and honesty left in the world? The trouble is that those who do an honest day’s work do not make the news and so only the negative prevails. Let’s hope there are enough unsung heroes to counter balance the rogues and scoundrels who dominate the news and who can maintain the tradition of fair play and tolerance that should characterise our ‘green and pleasant land’.
Flash fiction By Deb Buckle
Reader contributions Below are two examples of ‘Flash fiction’, a form of writing that is less than 150 words in length and has a title, a beginning, a middle and an end. Write your fiction, attach a high resolution graphic, and send your contribution to bea@elbkk.com No Spring Tulips It was Summer when you strode, barefoot, into my life. You led me step by step along the damp sand, each of my footprints disappearing into yours. That summer you changed my direction, turned upside down my clear cut views and opinions making me choose a new path. Kicking back I followed your footsteps eagerly into Autumn. Suntanned leaves pretended to be dead as we stepped on them and they crackled for the last time. Puddles and mud meant we brought the outside, inside as we trudged on into Winter. Soon our footsteps faltered on the ice and disappeared in melting snow. You began to tread heavily over my feelings, your steel toecaps disturbing my frozen undergrowth. Step by step you made sure that come Spring there won’t be any tulips to tiptoe through.
Silver balloons Sheila stared at the card. Silver balloons floating in a blue sky. 25 years. She thought back to their wedding day. How elated she felt when Ian had made his speech. Called her his domestic godess. He had married her for her cooking. Yorkshire puddings that rose to impossible heights, the lightest sponge cakes, souflees so full of air it was hard to believe there were any other ingredients. Sheila’s culinary skills had never let him down. She had whisked and folded, beaten and kneaded. Ian had devoured and guzzled, slurped and belched. In fact considering how much air he expelled it was surprising that over the years he had ballooned to almost 20 stone. Not that it bothered him, he was in gourmet heaven. Sheila however, had never felt so deflated in her life. Still, after 25 years, Sheila knew she would never let him down-he could stay on the bloody kitchen ceiling forever.
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Smart food for the over fifties By Judith Coulson
Adequate nutrition can be a challenge as you get older. The number of calories you need begins to decline as you get older, while the amount of nutrients you need stays the same, or even increases. It is important that every calorie you consume is packed with nutrients in order to stay healthy, prevent disease and keep mentally active.
As you get older, your body becomes less efficient at absorbing some key nutrients, which is why it is important to plan your diet carefully. Several key nutrients in particular may be in short supply as you get older. Below are the top vitamins and nutrients you need, and some suggestions on how to get enough of them in Thailand. Vitamin B12 B12 is important for creating red blood cells and DNA, and for maintaining healthy nerve functions. Getting enough B12 can be a challenge because you can’t absorb it from food as well as you did in your forties.
Folate/Folic Acid Folate plays an important role in the development of red blood cells or erythrocytes. A lack of this compound can make the body more susceptible to cancer. Adequate folate levels are necessary for proper brain functioning and can prevent depression. How to eat enough: Eat more fruits and vegetables especially: asparagus, broccoli, lettuce, avocado, spinach and other green leafy vegetables, any kind of beans and lentils, tropical fruits like mango’s and oranges. Beans and lentils are easy to prepare ahead. You can easy cook them in the rice cooker, 1 part beans, 2 parts water, and store them for 3-4 days in a container, in the fridge.
How to eat more of it: The richest sources include fish especially oily fish like salmon, sardines and mackerel, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and milk products. Consume oily fish at least 1 time a week, sardines or mackerel in tins are fine, just buy the ones in virgin olive oil. Liver contains a lot of vitamin B12 but should only be consumed once a month. If you are a vegetarian, you may need to concentrate on milk, yogurt, and vegans can get B12 from fortified foods, nutritional yeast, and dietary supplements. 22
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Calcium Calcium plays many roles in the body. But it is most important for building and maintaining strong bones. Unfortunately, surveys show that as we age, we consume less calcium in our diets and more is leached through use of alcohol, tobacco, sugar and salt. Calcium is so essential that if you don’t get enough, your body will leach it out of your bones and that can increase the risk of brittle bones and fractures. How to eat enough: Get 1 serving a day of low-fat milk or other dairy products. The body needs both calcium and protein for bone health, what makes dairy products an ideal source. Other good dietary
sources of calcium include kale and broccoli, watercress and other dark leafy greens and okra eaten together with almonds, or sesame seeds to get the calcium protein combination. Vitamin D Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium, maintain bone density, and prevent osteoporosis. Findings suggest that vitamin D may also protect against some chronic diseases. Retirees in Thailand tend to develop a vitamin D deficiency more frequently than Europeans living at home, which is a bit surprising given the amount of sunlight we get every day. How to get enough: First rule, get at least 15 minutes outdoor activity a day, preferably early in the morning. There is no better source of vitamin D then natural sunlight. Vitamin D is also found in salmon, tuna, egg, mushrooms and oysters. It is not recommended to supplement vitamin D as a single vitamin. Potassium Getting enough potassium in your diet may also help keep bones strong. This essential mineral is vital for cell function and has also been shown to help reduce high blood pressure and the risk of kidney stones. How to eat enough: Fruits and vegetables are by far the richest dietary sources of potassium. Banana, prunes, plums, and potatoes in their skins, are particularly rich in potassium. Dried apricots, any kind of beans, green leafy vegetables, avocado, mushrooms and squash are also good sources. By helping yourself to a cup of vegetables at every meal, you can get enough potassium.
Magnesium Magnesium plays a crucial role in some 300 different physiological processes. Getting enough can help keep your immune system in top shape, your heart healthy, and your bones strong. Many whole foods, including vegetables, contain magnesium. Medications including diuretics may reduce the magnesium absorption. How to eat enough: Fill your plate with as many unprocessed foods as possible, including fresh fruits, green leafy vegetables, nuts, whole grains, beans and seeds, all of which are great sources of magnesium. Fibre Fibre helps promote healthy digestion by moving foods through the digestive tract. Foods rich in fibre have many other health benefits, including protection against heart disease. How to eat enough: Consume more whole grains, nuts, beans, fruits, and vegetables, as already mentioned above. Omega 3 Fats These unsaturated fats have a wide range of benefits, including possibly reducing symptoms in rheumatoid arthritis and slowing the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease of reduced vision in the elderly. New evidence also suggests that omega 3s may also reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and perhaps even keep the brain sharper as we age. How to eat enough: Help yourself to at least two servings of oily fish a week. Salmon, tuna, sardines, and mackerel are especially high in omega 3 fats. Some plant based sources of omega 3 include soybeans, walnuts, flaxseed, chia seeds and walnuts. LSA (linseed, sesame and almonds), sprinkled on cereal or mixed in a smoothie, is quite a good source of omega 3 fats. Expat Seniors in bangkok
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Water Water might not seem like an essential vitamin or mineral, but it is crucial for good health. With age, the sense of thirst may decline and certain medicines increase the risk for becoming dehydrated. Water is especially important if you are increasing the fibre in your diet, since it absorbs water. How to drink enough: It is recommended you drink 3 to 5 large glasses of water each day, especially in a hot country like Thailand. Drinks like coffee, black tea and alcohol don’t replace water, as they actually dehydrate your body. One sign that you’re drinking enough water is the colour of your urine; it should be pale yellow. If it is bright or dark yellow, you may need to drink more water.
How about supplements to reach your daily intake on nutrients? Today we know that supplements are no replacement for fresh whole foods. They can be used, as the name says, to supplement an already balanced whole food diet, in cases of illness or during treatment and recovery, but should never be consumed as a substitute for a healthy diet. Most of the above mentioned nutrients should not be supplemented as single vitamins. What can be beneficial, is to take a well-balanced multivitamin in addition to a balanced meal plan. Summary To put the above recommendations into practice is easier than you think. Follow these 4 rules: 1. Each day you should eat: Green leafy vegetables, onions, mushrooms, beans, berries and seedspainting Tawan Dachanee’s 24
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2. At every meal fill your medium sized plate with: •½ vegetables and fruits, chose at least 3 different coloured foods •¼ animal or plant protein sources such as meat, poultry, dairy products, beans, mushrooms or eggs •¼ carbohydrates such as grains, potato, sweet potato, pumpkin or lentils 3. D rink at least 1.5 to 2 litres of plain water a day 4. G o for a 15-30 minute walk per day, preferably early in the morning Some practical advice The Thai food markets offer a wide range of green leafy and other coloured vegetables and are rich in beans, mushrooms and seeds. The best way to cook vegetables is as quickly as possible, stir fried, steamed or eaten raw. Beans can easily be cooked in the rice cooker, with no previous soaking needed, and can be stored for a couple of days in the fridge. Seeds should not be heated to keep all the healthy fatty acids alive, just sprinkle them over your dish at the end or mix them into your cereal or yoghurt for breakfast. The exception to this is flaxseed that must be ground to be absorbed. If you have trouble eating a big meal, start having smaller meals and snacks 3-5 times a day. Remember that each meal or snack should contain a vegetable or fresh whole fruit component. Limit fresh fruit juice to maximum 1 a day. Contact Judith@bkk-health.com for further information on how to create a balanced diet plan.
GivingBackAssoc By Terry Weir
Helping charities and donors in Thailand and nearby countries (http://www.givingbackassoc.org) GivingBackAssoc (otherwise known as GB) is a website which provides database type information on charities. We also provide charity reviews and other information such as charity map and volunteer opportunities. We launched the website last October 2013. We already receive 1500+ site visits per month so we can see there is demand for the information that we provide. From a donors viewpoint the website informs them of the range of charities available which may fit in with their philanthropic goals. The reviews provide more detailed information on the charities and aim to increase the confidence of the potential donors in a charity’s activities and therefore help them with their support decision. Over time the reviews will also encourage charities to provide better and comparable information that helps donors in their assessment. The charities are marked on an interactive map on the website such that charity supporters can find charities in a particular area and simply clicking on the charity will take them to the charity’s website. We also provide information on volunteer opportunities. The benefit to charities is that it provides another channel for introducing new potential donors to their charity. It also will hopefully encourage an improvement in governance at the charities as they can see what information other charities are providing and logically if they provide better information they will attract more donors. Also, having detailed information available on GB website reduces the administrative burden on the charities through repeatedly providing the same information to donors.
Terry Weir is the Chief Financial Officer of a large company in Bangkok, Hana Microelectronics PCL. He started the GivingBackAssoc website as he found that information on the charities in Thailand is lacking and for many charities transparency and good governance could be improved. At this time he pays out of my own pocket for one full time staff to help with the website and reviews. However, there is a real need for more volunteers to help with contacting the charities to find out up-to-date volunteer opportunities, charity fund raising news, visiting charities and writing review drafts. If anyone would like to help please send an email to Terry Weir via the email address for GB givingbackassoc@gmail.com Expat Seniors in bangkok
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Healthy recipes By Judith Coulson
Anti-cancer foods
Sprouted bean, radish and broccolini salad 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds 250g broccolini trimmed 1 small cucumber, halved, seeded and sliced into half moons 10 radishes sliced into rounds 1 small red onion diced 2 handful of mixed sprouted beans Dressing: 1 tbsp balsamic Vinegar 1 tbsp sesame oil 1 tbsp olive oil small piece of fresh ginger grated ½ lime juiced salt and pepper to taste Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable. This family of foods contain a number of cancer fighting chemicals which not only repair DNA damage, but also encourage better liver detoxification by deactivating cancer - causing excess oestrogens
Skin and eye health Anti cancer foods Fresh Virgin Mary
6 ripe tomatoes, skin the tomatoes with hot water 3 celery sticks 1 garlic glove (optional) 1 red chilli seeded ice cubes a pinch of celery salt (optional) Blend all the ingredients in a blender until smooth, serve on ice with a celery stick as decoration Tomatoes help lower the risk for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and cancer. Tomatoes are an outstanding source of the antioxidant lycopene. Antioxidants travel through the body, neutralising dangerous free radicals that could otherwise damage cells and cell membranes
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Carrot and ginger soup with lime and clementine Serves 4 2 tbsp olive oil 2 onion chopped, 2.5cm fresh ginger finely chopped 450g carrots finely sliced 2.5l vegetable stock 5-6 clementines juiced (1,7-2dl) a pinch of turmeric, salt & pepper to taste lemon zest and fresh coriander leaf to serve Carrots are the richest source of beta-carotene which is converted into vitamin A in the body. A vitamin supporting eye and skin health strengthen your immune system and reduce high cholesterol levels
Heart healthy
Ginger chicken with sautĂŠed spinach serves four 1 tbsp olive oil 600g boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sizes 6 small well riped tomatoes 3 large garlic cloves, chopped 2.5 piece fresh root ginger, peeled and cut into strips 1tbsp sesame oil 300g spinach leaves juice of 1 lime, tbsp water if needed salt and pepper to taste 1 tbsp flaked toasted almonds, to serve Garlic and ginger both contribute to blood vessel health by preventing platelets from sticking, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. Both also have antibacterial & anti-inflammatory agents that help to reduce pain and swelling in the joints.
Heart healthy
Mackerel with citrus salsa serves four 4 mackerel fillets, about 175g each sea salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil, for brushing Citrus salsa: 2 oranges 1 shallot, finely diced 1 mild red chilli, seeded and diced juice and zest of 1 lime 1tbsp olive oil 3tbsp fresh chopped mint
Kidney & heart healthy
Beet soup with lemon zest serves four 5 cooked beets 750ml chicken or vegetable stock salt and black pepper to taste 1tbsp plain sheep’s, goat’s or normal yoghurt to serve 1tbsp sesame seeds (not roasted while losing its benefits) grated lemon zests to serve
Beetroot contains the powerful antioxidant betacyanin and helps to cleanse the liver, gallbladder and kidney. Betacyanin also acts to boost natural antioxidants in the body to fight the dangers of free radicals and prevent premature aging.
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Time to take a balance test By Angela Chan
If you find yourself needing to sit down to take off your shoes, it might be time to start paying attention to your sense of balance.
“People don’t usually think about balance until they fall, but little signs such as relying on hand rails to go up and down stairs can be early warnings that stability is starting to go” says Jason Jackson, a physical therapist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. These changes won’t show up on the formal assessments that doctors use for people with balance disorders, such as the Berg and Tinetti scales. For most people, good ways to gauge include the need to lean on arm rests when getting out of a chair, or feeling wobbly while standing with feet very close together. An important age range for improving balance is the 30s and 40s. While most people don’t develop serious balance problems until well into their 50s, experts recommend that otherwise healthy people keep active and do simple exercises to keep steady into old age. In the United States alone, falls are the leading cause of injury for people over 65, according to a 2005 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every 17 seconds, someone in this age group is treated in an emergency room for a fall. Every 30 minutes, one will die from injuries caused by falling. Balance is controlled by the brain’s cerebellum. According to McGill University Physiology Professor Kathleen Cullen, it coordinates information from three systems: the visual, the vestibular (or inner ear) and the proprioceptive (or sense of body position). In addition, it works with the spinal cord to adjust for unexpected information, for instance, a slippery surface. All these systems start to erode after 40. People tend to become more sedentary as they age and begin to rely on the visual system more heavily. This creates a problem as the visual 28
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system doesn’t work as quickly as the vestibular system, so people start getting shaky and risk falling. “People then don’t trust their own balance, so they become more sedentary,” says Dr. Cullen. “And by becoming less active, you actually lose the ability to use or take advantage of [sensory information], and your balance gets worse.” Recommended exercises Exercises can isolate these different systems and make the body work harder to keep them in top shape. Experts suggest doing exercises in a couple of five to ten minute bouts each day. Seek ways to challenge your body to maintain stability in your daily routine. If you ride the BTS or MRT, stand and hold the pole with only a light grip rather than a tight clutch. And walk on different surfaces, says Mr. Jackson of Mount Sinai. At a park, for example, alternate between pavement and grass, as the unstable surface makes muscles work more. Stand and lift your right arm straight out in front of you while swinging your left leg back and forth, and vice versa, to work on coordination, says Mr. Jackson. Then try it with eyes closed to decrease your reliance on vision for balance. Strengthening the hips “An important component of preserving balance can be done next to your kitchen counter” says Jennifer Brach, an Associate Professor of Physical Therapy at the University of Pittsburgh. Hold the counter while standing on one leg and lift the other leg to the front, then the side, then back and then up with your knee bent like you’re marching. This works four separate groups of muscles: the hip abductors, hip adductors, hip extensors and hip flexors. (These muscles can also
be strengthened by using the hip abductor and adductor weight machines at the gym.) “For office workers, simply getting up from a chair ten times in a row can be useful” says Mr. Jackson. Alternate between getting up with your feet in a wide stance, which provides more support, then with a narrow stance, your feet touching. “It’s much more difficult to maintain balance with a narrow base of support, so those little variations test your coordination,” he says. Exercise your nervous system “Good balance also requires exercise for the nervous system,” says Dr. Brach. “To practice their balance, people should be working with timing and coordination,” she says. An exercise she has patients do in her clinic is the “stepping pattern.” Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Put the right foot in front of the left, and shift
weight onto the front foot so that the left heel is off the ground. Do this ten times, then repeat with the left foot in front of the right. For a more difficult variation, alternate sides (right-left-rightleft), to get your body accustomed to switching weight more quickly. You can make the move more challenging by stepping backward. The stepping pattern is similar to moves found in ballroom dancing and “forces you to think and coordinate and time your body,” says Dr. Brach. Exercises that encourage learning new moves and adjusting to the environment, such as tennis or gymnastics, as opposed to long distance running, may be better for maintaining balance. But, says Dr. Brach, “We don’t have the research to say for sure that one is better than another.” Walking in a circle or oval around the living room or backyard can be good practice because it is more challenging to walk on a curve. The mental component to balance “There is a mental component to regaining balance” says Arlene Schmid, an Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy at Colorado State University. This mental aspect is a bigger factor for people with impaired balance due to advanced age or illness. In a study published by the medical journal Stroke in 2012, Dr. Schmid’s team taught yoga to post-stroke patients for eight weeks. Of the 34 patients, 19 initially had balance impairment as measured on the Berg balance scale. After training, 11 had impaired balance. Dr. Schmid said she believes the patients were successful in large part because they felt confident they could do the movements. “We really were trying to focus on making everyone feel successful from day one to build their confidence, so for the first few weeks we only had sitting postures,” she says. Yoga can boost balance ability because it increases flexibility and its many poses integrate movements that strengthen a lot of different muscles, including those in the hip, but the emotional component is key (Dr. Schmid). “People are afraid of falling and they don’t want to move anymore — and the biggest preventative piece is just not being afraid to get moving.” Expat Seniors in bangkok
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HEALTH & NUTRITION
Senior exercise think fit be fit By Bruce Baly
When should I begin my workout regimen and what can I do? Start now, regardless of whatever shape you are in. For the beginner, walk after dinner with your spouse. First begin with a walk around the block, then slowly work up to a walk around the park. Finally walk to dinner, lunch, or breakfast. The reward for your exercise will be food and after you have eaten, you can walk home. My spouse and I walk after dinner to find dessert, or to see a movie. If you keep walking and building up your strength and stamina, pretty soon you will be ready to take a walking tour in another part of the world and see the sights up close and personal.
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Whilst it is always recommended to start exercising early in your life, fifty to sixty years old is a good time to begin. The key to commencing a new exercise regime is to start slowly and build. Along with walking, gradually begin to take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. A good place to start your walking programme in Bangkok is Benjasiri Park next to The Emporium. My spouse and I go there occasionally and notice many people walking and running. So now you are old enough to retire? Now is the time to get fit. In theory, you have more time and more reasons to become fit. First your doctor will prescribe blood pressure medicine for you if your blood pressure is too high. It is easier and cheaper to become fit and bring your blood pressure and heart rate down than it is to rely on pharmaceuticals. Your blood chemistry will also change as a result of exercise. Cholesterol, creatinine, globulin, and bilirubin will all move towards healthier levels if you begin to exercise each day. Once you are embarked on a path to fitness you will live longer and healthier than if you plant yourself in front of the nearest television. I still love to go to the movie theatre but I refer to that as the altered state of reality. It is where you step out of your daily routine for a two hour period. Every extra pound of fat you carry slows you down and makes your heart work harder.
The amazing advantage for you of losing fat at this point in your life is you can go through your closets and find clothes you have not worn in twenty years, saving money on new clothes as well as boosting your ego. As you become more fit, your heart becomes stronger and beats slower. As more blood is pumped to the brain you will find yourself becoming less forgetful and feeling mentally stronger. If you are able to join any kind of fitness, running, biking, gym, tennis, golf, diving, swimming, hiking, or walking club, you will come in contact with younger and older people and together they will push you, encourage you, and inspire you to work out every day and participate with the group. I notice in my swim club how I improve my swimming speeds when I swim with a group. Your sense of wellbeing and accomplishment will begin to take over as endorphins flood your body during every workout. You will see your body shape gradually change, and you will have more energy and stamina to play with your grandchildren, and the ability to live out your adventures. You will have a better understanding of how the body ages and you will be uplifted by the occasional genetic anomaly who joins your club at sixty-five and works out with you, laughs with you, becomes your dear friend, for thirty years, and then gently leaves this mortal coil. I am grateful. Expat Seniors in bangkok
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HEALTH & NUTRITION
Three strikes and still not out: the remarkable recoveries of Gary White – aged (nearly) 62 By Bea Toews and Gary White
Gary and I met by accident. Talking to a friend about people making remarkable recoveries from various serious ailments, his name came up. I was given his number, called to introduce myself and asked if I could meet him to talk about the role that exercise had played in his recovery. We met for lunch at the Novotel Ploenchit, and this is his story.
Along with his brother and sister, Gary was raised by his mother in Sydney, Australia. Through sheer of hard work, Gary became a Westpac Bank Manager and was posted abroad. One stint he undertook (with trepidation) took him to Papua New Guinea, and as a result of sheer nerves, he started smoking before he went there. A posting he looked forward to was Thailand (which he commenced in 1991), as he had holidayed there previously, and still retained childhood images of Asia. For Gary, the Asian scene contained a Thai temple set amidst glowing green rice fields. It was on this particular posting that he knew he had found his home. He liked Thailand so much that he took out permanent residence and, when Westpac closed its Thai office in 2005, he retired. Just as he had started smoking when posted to Papua New Guinea, he now stopped when he retired from the bank. He learned some Thai, “not enough to stay out of trouble…but enough to get into trouble!” and set about making a new life in Bangkok. This is the story that he told me about his brushes with illness and death, and his remarkable recoveries. It was early 2007. I was in Chiang Mai with a visiting friend from Australia, doing some sightseeing. The trip was planned around attending the Royal Flora Rajapruek botanical exhibition. At the time I weighed about 80 kilograms and, being just 165 centimetres tall, I looked rather like a butterball. The day we were to go to Royal Flora was also going to start our return journey to Bangkok, and I woke feeling 32
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distinctly unwell. Now we had had a couple of drinks the night before, but nowhere near enough for me to feel the way I did. I got up to get ready for breakfast, went into the bathroom and felt a wave of hot blackness rush over me. I passed out, fell into the door, broke the door, cut my head, and came to about 15 minutes later. The hotel called a doctor who dressed my wound, and when I tried to get up another black wave came over me. I was hospitalised overnight. Back in Bangkok, a cardiologist did all sorts of tests and diagnosed me with an arrhythmic heartbeat, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and a shot liver. About the only thing that was not bad was my blood sugar! Of course, I hadn’t been taking very good care of myself, spending my time drinking too much, not eating properly, and never doing any exercise. My doctor said that the only thing in my favour was that I had given up smoking! So he prescribed walking half an hour, 2 or 3 times a week, to stop drinking and change my diet, or I would be dead within the year. That sounded pretty convincing to me, so I did as instructed. Some years later I was allowed to start drinking again, but no more than one or two a day. This continued for five years. I was feeling pretty good, and a lot of that had to do with exercise and weight loss. I was actually walking about an hour 5 or 6 days a week, and had lost nearly 20 kilos in weight. My back and feet no longer ached from the strain of carrying my stomach! In 2011, I had a bit of trouble with a swelling that came and went under my tongue (that appeared when I ate) and it disappeared fairly quickly. It was never there long enough to do anything about it. Indeed, I was
having dental treatment at the time and no one had detected any problems. In September 2011 my niece came to Thailand, and celebrated her birthday here on the 28th, and I still thought I had no real health issues to be worried about. By mid October I was in deep trouble. I was having difficulty eating and my tongue would not work properly. I decided to go to the hospital and, in between seeking an appointment and getting one, the glands in my throat suddenly swelled up like small balloons. The Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist suspected cancer and took biopsy samples. These confirmed it was cancer which had spread to my neck lymph nodes. This was at Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, where I had been attending check ups ever since my heart problem in Chiang Mai. Samitivej referred me to Chulalongkorn Hospital, as it has the best cancer unit in the country. Unfortunately, right at that time, Chula closed to all new patients due to the great flood of 2011. So though I was supposed to go there, it was not possible. In the end it was Samitivej that called me and said, “We have to do something NOW” so I was referred to Bangkok Hospital instead. I think it was a Wednesday when Samitivej called me back. I registered at Bangkok Hospital on Wednesday afternoon, was back at Samitivej Thursday to have my teeth checked (no open cavities during radiation therapy, apparently) and on Friday treatment requirements and measurements were done at Bangkok Hospital. The radiation therapy started the following Tuesday and the chemo guy wanted to start me that same day, but I didn’t have my bags with me so I was allowed to go home, pack and come back.
on my tongue that I could neither eat nor drink. They had to put me on a drip and I had a blood transfusion because I became anaemic. When my mouth was in ‘reasonable’ shape they started radiation again, and my mouth went haywire again. I existed on a diet of protein enriched chocolate milk for several months, and a liquid diet for several months after that (I hope I never ever have protein enriched chocolate milk again and can still barely stomach a soup!). Obviously this was all very traumatic and distressing. At times I was almost distraught, but I don’t think I ever gave up. I always believed that somehow I would get through these awful trials. I got over the cancer and it is gone, touch wood. I still have regular checks of the markers. Unfortunately, in the process of killing the cancer, the doctors almost killed me. On the plus side, had they operated I wouldn’t have a tongue. My teeth are also ruined from the radiation. Before they started I had just completed a full renovation of them, and now I have barely enough to be able to chew. I will have to get them all removed soon. Slowly over 2012 I improved, both in body and within my mouth. My weight crept up from the low fifties and I could start to eat again. Soft things at first, then a slowly expanding range of
I was to have 30 radiation and 3 chemo treatments in total. After about two weeks I had such severe sores and ulcers Expat Seniors in bangkok
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foods. Anything hard was out of the question, as were spicy and hot foods. The slightest morsel of chilli burned my tongue to the point where I would be in tears at the pain. Lemon, lime, pepper, mustards, anything like that was a real ‘no no’. I also had this nomadic rash from the chemotherapy that moved from one part of my body to another. It itched and itched, coming up in welts like mosquito bites, and the only way to make them go away was to scratch them, making them bleed and scab. Then the rash would move to some other area of my body. This went on for over a year. Nevertheless, by early 2013 I was well enough to return to Chiang Mai (and finally went to Royal Flora Rajapruek!) and went on to Pai. I tried the hot springs there, which were wonderful and soothing for my skin, but brought me out in a full body red rash when I emerged from the waters. And what followed was the hall of horrors. Back in Bangkok I went rapidly downhill over late March, April and into May. I developed every type of skin infection that you could imagine; ulcers, cold sores, fungal infections in the mouth and on my lips, red blotchy spots all over. My fingernails and toenails were infected by a yeast infection that was turning my nails to a soft doughy mass. I had sores and infections literally from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I had no energy, no motivation, nothing. I could barely make it up a flight of stairs and to get to a BTS station had to have a rest half way up! I couldn’t even carry my little dog. I went to Samitivej again and every specialist looked at a different spot. I was down to 49 kilos 34
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and couldn’t eat because I couldn’t open my mouth from the different infections, ulcers and cold sores. By this time I would go to bed and pray that I wouldn’t wake up the next morning. This was the time that I really wanted to die, when I had all but given up. Still, some spark of a will to live remained and I returned to the hospital, and said “Look you have to look at the big picture; I am dying!“ They referred me to a new doctor who looked at the whole ghastly lot of me and twigged to what had happened. The cancer treatment had destroyed my immune system and I was easy prey to any and every infection and disease going, and rapidly succumbing them all! I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t eat, and I couldn’t exercise. He said if I had not gone back to the hospital when I did I would have been dead within 3 months. In May, I started to take appropriate medication, and I immediately felt better. I started walking again, but the first time I could barely last 20 minutes before I crawled home. I was gradually improving but the quality of my life was not great. Then I saw an article in the Bangkok Post about NewMoves. I needed a program to get me into a healthier state. I had never been to a gym before, nor even contemplated going to one. Reading the article, I thought that it was the sort of exercise that I could do. So I went to the gym and told Rob (the owner) what had happened to me and what I wanted, which, simply put, was to be fit and healthy. He said ok, do one or two sessions, and we will look at you and you can look at us. I did not want a
group session because I felt that everyone would be looking at me and I would be holding others back. I went to the first session in September, with my trainer Pocky, and I found it encouraging. The exercises were pathetically simple, but I could DO them. Pocky knew I was very weak at that time, so he tailored the sessions for me. He gradually upped the pressure but he also listened to me and was conscious of how I felt. He knew that I was trying and that if I said an exercise was too much for now, I was genuine. Today I am in better shape than I have ever been. I never did sport as a kid, I never exercised and was never fit. I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 1984 but I puffed and panted the whole way, and one of the porters literally pushed, pulled and dragged me up the final slopes to the peak! Now I can do full sets of spider pushups! I like it. I can feel and see the benefit from the exercises. My good cholesterol is in order for the first time since it was measured in 2007, my white blood cell count is good for the first time since the cancer treatment and it’s all due to exercise. In between the heart attack and the cancer, I tried the diet, and it worked to some extent, as did the walking, but it didn’t make me feel as good as this regime does now. I now have muscle mass and I feel energetic and strong. Walking was great, but it wasn’t enough. From 12-13 pills a day I am down to two or three. I am hoping the third pill will be gone at my next checkup, whilst the other two will be with me for life. At first I missed eating junk food and my cardiologist said, “I don’t want to keep you alive and have you be miserable. So long as you are good 6 days a week, the 7th day you can eat whatever you like”, so Sunday became my pig out day. I was allowed to drink alcohol again, provided it was in moderation, but I find that I don’t want the drinks so much any more. I find that my pig out days are becoming less piggish! I think, “I really shouldn’t eat that, and don’t need to eat that” so I don’t. I also adopt this philosophy for the gym, where I don’t care
if my form is not perfect. I do my best and if I get it 50, 60 or 70 percent right, then that is a lot better than 0% right, or zero exercise. And with practice my form gets better. I do the homework exercises that Pocky sets me 5 to 6 days a week. I have started jogging and now jog my old walking route every day. When I miss exercises I feel that there is something missing in my day. Lots of people have helped me to stay alive and get better through my journey; my housekeeper, friends and family, as well as the doctors and staff at Samitivej. Overall though, I think that it is the exercise and good diet that have made me the healthy and energetic person I am today. But most especially the exercise, the NewMoves regime, and the efforts of my trainer Pocky that make me think “Maybe it’s time to tackle Kilimanjaro again, without that porter shoving me to the top!”
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FINANCE AND LEGALITIES
Where there’s a Will there’s a way By Jane Haddow
Proper estate planning is not just important in your home country, but also in Thailand. From the cradle onwards we are encouraged to plan ahead, and it makes sense, if we are to ensure that the assets we have worked hard for during our life time are to be inherited by those we think are deserving of them and not distributed under the Intestacy Rules.
For example, if you die in Thailand without a Will, then your spouse is automatically entitled to only half of the marital property and the highest ranked statutory heirs – relatives of the deceased are eligible to inherit from you the remaining half of the estate equally. In descending order the list of statutory heirs are : descendants, parents, siblings of the full blood, siblings of the half blood, grandparents, uncles and aunts. However, it is not that simple. Your spouse, unless you have divorced him/her is also considered a statutory heir, even if you have separated perhaps by mutual consent, desertion or some form of legal separation. So if there is an heir in the descendants category, the spouse is an equal in this category. If there are no descendants, but there are heirs in the parents or brothers and
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sister of the full blood categories, the spouse receives half the estate. If there are only heirs in the brothers and sister of the half blood, grandfathers and grandmothers or uncles and aunts categories, the spouse receives two thirds. If there are no other statutory heirs, then the spouse receives everything. For example you may have married many years ago, perhaps had children, the relationship dwindled, you separated and you have lost contact with each other. The period of separation or location of your spouse is irrelevant. If you have not divorced, then your spouse can emerge out of the ‘woodwork’ and take their share from your estate, even if you are in a recent relationship and have children from that relationship. Of course one simple answer to this is to terminate old relationships by divorce, but it is sometimes not that easy.
There is also the question of children born out of wedlock. If they are legitimated by the father, they are considered to be descendants, as indeed are adopted children. So for a husband and wife or couples in a loving relationship they should consider making a Will leaving everything to each to secure the future for the surviving spouse/ partner and their respective family. Unless there is a Will, a deceased party’s interest in the property will fall into intestacy but with a properly executed Will in place you can cut out the statutory heirs, and leave your assets to your loved ones. In Thailand it is possible for a foreigner to lease land and own the ‘bricks and mortar’ on the leased land. The importance of a properly constructed lease cannot be over emphasised. Unless the lease contains a successor clause whereby the rights and obligations under the lease pass down to your successors in title, then under Thai law, on the death of the Lessee, the land reverts to the Lessor, even if the Lessee has made a Will. Unfair? Perhaps, but that is the law. Many legal commentators are of the opinion that for a successor clause to be recognised under Thai Law, the successor clause should not only be inserted into the lease, but also properly registered and recorded at the Land Office. One solution perhaps - let us assume for example that you are married, are in your sixties and are leasing land and buying house. You have two grown up children. You may consider having your children as Lessees on the lease with you. On your death, the lease will continue in the names of the survivors for the remaining terms of the lease. Of course there are the practical
considerations for registration of the lease in your name and your children, particularly if they live overseas, but this can be easily overcome with correctly prepared and executed powers of attorney. A very important aspect to all of this of course is to make sure you actually own/lease the property you purchased in Thailand. Check that title of a house you have purchased is vested in your name and that a lease has been properly recorded at the Land Office. One final point with regard to Wills in Thailand. It is far cheaper and simpler to have a Will drawn up in Thailand for your Thai assets pursuant to Thai law. Although the court in Thailand can be asked to prove a Will drawn up outside of Thailand, there is no guarantee that this document will be approved by the court, if the court perhaps considers it contrary to Thai policy. We hope by now that we have convinced you that a Will is an important document to safeguard your family’s interests but it is important that you take legal advice on the terms of your Will. A reputable lawyer will be able to advise you properly and draw up a Will specific for your needs. The subject of Wills can be complex. This article is intended as an overview only and not an in depth discussion on estate planning. Mrs Jane Haddow and Mr Nitithorn Ayuwan of Chavalit and Partners Co. Ltd 19/51 Hua Hin Soi 19 (Wat Klaikangon), Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110 Tele : +66 (0) 32 522237/522273 Fax : +66 (0) 32 522290 Email : jane.r.haddow@gmail.com or tomkc31@gmail.com
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FINANCE AND LEGALITIES
Getting a Thai driving license By Debbie Warner
Are you legally able to drive in Thailand? Riding on the passenger side of our vehicle 99% of the time, I have to remind myself of the benefits of having a Thai driving license. It’s important you remember these advantages once you have made your way through the maze of required documentation, return trips, rules, regulations and imparting of Baht to all the officials involved to produce and own this prestigious card. With an official Kingdom of Thailand Driving License you can enjoy: Photo ID No need to carry your passport in your purse all the time. Presenting a Thai driver’s license has worked everywhere for me when I need to show identification in Thailand. Esteem Soon after making the effort to procure one, I realised that I am one of few farang who actually have a Thai Driving License, and it makes me feel very ‘local’. Bragging rights Few people take on the daunting task of maneuvering through the bureaucratic system to get a license. Having a license also shows you actually drive in Thailand, another daunting task. You are legal The Thai Police think I’m just great when I display my official Thai driving license and it seems to assist in any occasion where I have to deal with the authorities. My journey was made simpler because I had an existing, valid Alaska USA driver’s license. If you do not have a valid license (not expired) as shown on a select list of countries, then you must attend classes sponsored by the Thailand Department of Land Transportation, and that in itself is another story. I do have to ponder the logic of America being 38
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on the list, since we drive on the right side of the road, the steering wheel is on the left, and mere infractions of traffic laws can put you in jail for a long time. You must overcome all those old natural tendencies if you are to drive in Thailand. There are several steps involved in successfully negotiating the unwritten specific procedures to obtain a Thai driving license for a non Thai national. I will attempt to explain these steps and hopefully make it less painful for those seriously considering driving legally in this amazing country. And I highly recommend that you set aside a full day for this endeavor! Application Form for Residence Certificate in Thailand As with all things for non Thai nationals, our journey begins at the Thai immigration office. Here you will provide the following documents to prove residency: 1. O riginal passport, including visa and arrival card 2. A complete copy of your passport, visa and arrival card, with your signature on each page 3. O ne passport photo 4. C opy of your house book or rental agreement Explain that you want to get a Thai Driving License and you will receive a Residency Certificate form to complete. The form is uncomplicated, asking your name, address, birth date, passport number, arrival card number, etc. Simply check the box “I wish to apply for residence certificate and the following reason … driving license.” They will then prepare a letter for you (the certificate) for only 500B. As a reminder, those helpful young Thai ladies out front work for tips! If the immigration office is not too busy and if you have all your documents it will only take about an hour for this step.
The Immigration Officer will ask if you want a car or motorcycle driving license. You will need a separate certificate for each type of license. My mother-in-law replied to this verbal question with “both” and the immigration folks thought she said “boat,” when they prepared her residency certificate to operate a ship. This took some time to unravel and required yet another trip to the immigration office, so be careful and check what you are receiving! Medical certificate Next, stop by a small clinic and tell the receptionist you need a medical certificate for a Thai driving license. I visited a small clinic where they spoke no English at all, my request was communicated by signaling with my hands in the 10 am and 2 pm position turning a steering wheel and they knew exactly what I needed. The doctor came to the counter and asked me to print my name on the two lines provided
on the form he provided. The form is written entirely in Thai and I have no idea what it certifies. Attesting to my good health, he then signed and stamped the form, and charged me 50B. So easy! The trick here is to find that small clinic, as it only takes five minutes once your need is understood. My husband went to a government hospital and spent four hours to get his vitals read, waited to see a doctor, received a full examination and then waited to pay the bill before finally getting his medical certificate. Again, especially if you are pressed for time, find that small clinic. Thailand Department of Land Transportation You have arrived! Do not be intimidated by the large office building, the seemingly endless flights of stairs, or the complex road sign posters. Similarly, look past the solemn looks on the faces of people sitting in the hard chairs, waiting to be called to one of the glass walled cubicles where those in authority hold the key Expat Seniors in bangkok
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to obtaining your prestigious card. These are some of the hardest working office personnel I have ever seen. They are thorough and efficient and do not waiver from the rules. Approach the first available window with grave respect and state you are here for a driving license. Provide the following documentation: 1. Original passport, including visa and arrival card 2. A complete copy of your passport, visa and arrival card, with your signature on each page 3. Your original valid driver’s license (it will be returned to you) 4. A copy of your original driver’s license with your signature on the page 5. The original Residence Certificate received from Immigration 6. The original Medical Certificate obtained from that small clinic The officer will look at everything very closely and if you do not provide the signed copies of your passport, visa and existing driver’s license he will send you away to get copies. In my case, he vaguely suggested I try the small shop just outside the Land Transport Office parking area. He returned all my original documents to me and motioned for the next person in line. We watched this happen to almost every farang who approached the window. Once I reached the tiny office building outside the parking area, it was difficult not to believe this small shop with a very expensive copy machine wasn’t a close family member whose business was coincidently in a very convenient location. No matter, I was getting closer to my goal. Once the paperwork is in order, expect a short wait to move along to the driving test. Testing consists of three stages; the first is identifying the colours red, yellow and green
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on a dot chart. In a simulated scenario they will verify your ability to put your foot on the brake pedal when the light turns red, the third test is a little trickier and checks your depth perception when you raise your hand to signal the vertical lines in a box are at equal positions. That’s all the testing required, no written test, no driving a car. Don’t you just love Thailand? I passed the test! This is confirmed by my test results being given back to the Land Transport Officer and a request for 205B. I watched closely as the officer then passed all my paperwork to the young man whose job included taking my photo and printing the laminated card. Just a little longer waiting in those hard fiberglass chairs and my name was called. Stepping into the office, I was asked to sit in a chair and cover my shoulders with a red floral printed scarf before a photo can be taken. Only then I realised that wearing a tank top in the 90 degree weather was considered inappropriate attire. Lesson learned, so wear a turtleneck if it makes the staff happy. I show this photo a lot and it looks like I am wearing my grandmothers Sunday scarf. Oh well, this is likely the most photographed scarf in the Province! I giggled as I left the Land Transport Office. The feeling that accompanied me as I went was even better than that which came with getting my first license at sixteen years old! Even though this license is valid for only one year and is labeled ‘Temporary License,’ I felt so accomplished! Yesterday I successfully renewed my Thai driving license and it is now valid for five years. The renewal process requires exactly the same documents and testing as the initial endeavour and costs 655B. Knowing what documentation was needed, where to go and what to wear enabled me to complete the effort in less than three hours. And I really like my new photo ID, without the red scarf.
Seniors
Fashion
By Agneta Bekassy de Bekas
When thinking about seniors and fashion, it is difficult to know where to begin. In this first issue of Expat Seniors in Thailand, we have decided to feature coverups which are flexible in their use, and are just as appropriate on the beach, complimenting swimwear, as they are when going to the shops or to a restaurant.
To protect yourself from the sun or to move from beach to shore, what is needed is a light, attractive fabric, beautifully cut and easy to care for. The colours and styles should compliment your casual clothes or your swimwear, and feel comfortable and effortless. Beach and shore clothes from ByNika more than meet these requirements. ByNika is a collection designed by a Swedish woman, Anika Julin, who lives
part of the year in Thailand and the other part in Stockholm, Sweden. Anika has a background as a marketing executive for different businesses, among them H&M and International Telecom. One day, while walking on the beach in Thailand, Anika began wishing for the ultimate beach garment for use in warm destinations. She drew samples of tunics and kaftans that she imagined
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herself enjoying and using, and then had them made at a tailor shop in Bangkok. She started to wear these items herself on her trips to beach destinations and found that she enjoyed the process of seeing her sketches come to life. She has always been interested in fashion and travel, and her passion for the two combined to become this clothing line. It didn’t take long before friends started to ask where she bought her lightweight beach clothes. Anika created various styles, had them made up in fabrics she chose, and now wears them for many different occasions. Her friends liked them so much that they wanted to have some for themselves, so it seemed a natural progression for Anika to begin producing and selling tunics and kaftans. The sewing of ByNika garments is done in Bangkok, and the fabrics Anika chooses and
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buys herself are from a variety of different sources. They are perfect to pack as they don’t crease and are easy to wash, with “Drop and drip” as her motto. The garments can be worn by anyone, regardless of size, shape or age. They look great on slim women or women with a few extra kilos, on teenagers, young mums, businesswomen or mature women. Anika does not use models in her photo shoots, as she says she wants photos of real women wearing real clothes. This philosophy seemed a perfect fit for Expat Seniors, as the women featured in our pages could all be people you know: your sister, friend, neighbour, aunt or mother. You can find ByNika in the Oriental Hotel boutique in Bangkok, at Soneva Kiri at Koh Kood, and at Four Seasons in Chiang Mai. You can also order directly online. For more information about ByNika, please visit www.ByNika.se
Expat Seniors makeover By Claire Schultz
When I first met Bea the first thing that I noticed about her, after her warm nature and beautiful passion for the arts and anything creative, was her choice of glasses. Bea’s glasses immediately reminded me of Iris Apfel, a legendary New York fashion icon, whose signature style cannot be mistaken. When Bea agreed to be my makeover subject for the inaugural issue of Expat Seniors magazine, I secretly hoped she would allow me to do an Iris Apfel-inspired look. Although Bea is not someone that wears a lot of makeup on a daily basis, she was excited to try something new. 3 Tips for making a celebrity look work for you: •W hen wearing a celebrity-inspired look, select the elements of the look that you really love and work with those, rather than directly copying the whole look. Bea really liked Apfel’s vibrant red lip, so we made that the focal point of her look and decided to go for a more neutral eye rather than Apfels’ signature pastel green lids. •S elect makeup looks of women you admire that have similar colouring, ethnic background and features and are in a similar age bracket to you. These looks will suit you best and you will feel most comfortable wearing them. Stealing celebrity makeup cues is about looking groomed and elegant and being the best version of you, rather than becoming someone else entirely. •W hen you are trying a new look that is more dramatic than the makeup you would usually wear, like a bold red lip, test it out a few times at home before going out in public. You may feel silly doing your household chores wearing fabulous red lipstick. However, when you catch a glimpse of your reflection a couple of times as you walk past a mirror or window, you will become comfortable seeing yourself wearing your new look and will feel less self-conscious when wearing it out to an event.
Key Products Used: • MAC Studio Tech Cream Foundation • Make Up Store Lipstick - “China Red” • Boots No7 Extreme Length Mascara Claire Schultz is the Beauty Editor for Expat Ladies, Expat Seniors & Expat Kids Magazines and is a commercial and editorial makeup artist based in Southeast Asia & China. Her work can be viewed at www.claire-schultz.com. For bookings and enquiries please email info@claire-schultz.com. Expat Seniors in bangkok
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Fifty shades of grey (hair) By Eileen Marrinan
If you have coloured your hair for years and are considering going ‘au naturel’ with your grey hair, you are not alone. Large numbers of baby boomers who have coloured their hair for years are going back to their roots, their grey roots, and daring to be grey.
I’m not sure what it was that sent me on my path to embracing my greys. It might have been the humorous sight of row upon row of Chinese men at my local hair salon (I was living in China at the time), ears encased in miniature shower caps to protect them from the black hair dye. Or, on a more positive note, my younger sister sporting a fabulously dramatic natural silver streak through her dark hair. Either way, I was ready to ditch the hours spent in the hair salon
touching up regrowth and messing with foils and highlights. I was ready to face my silver foxiness and reasoned that if I truly didn’t like it, I could always head back to the salon. Unfortunately my decision to go grey and no longer dye my hair absolutely horrified my Chinese hairdresser. It is seriously not the done thing to flaunt your silver fox image in China. I pushed on regardless through the most challenging part of my decision, the ‘growing out the coloured hair’ phase. Fortunately this was not too traumatic for me as I had been having highlights, lowlights and any other lights you could think of put in my hair for years. So I wasn’t growing out a flat block of colour that would show a skunk like streak down my parting. I also had a short haircut which really helped speed along the transition as my dyed hair was getting cut out every four to six weeks. That said, transitioning with longer hair can be a bit more challenging because, depending on the length of your hair, it can take up to a year or more for your natural state to grow in. So the key is to work with your hair stylist’s support through the growing out stages between ‘fake’ colour to ‘authentic’ grey. This can mean eliminating the regrowth retouch and making use of highlights and lowlights to break up the stark line between coloured and natural hair. You can start blending highlights with your natural greys for a slow fade to silver. Add lowlights with your grey that fall somewhere between your silver hair and the colour you have used to highlight. As the more natural grey shows through, lighten up the lowlights
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which you will eventually be able to forego as you will have your very own natural ones. This is the best approach if you want to keep your length and go grey at the same time. If this sounds like a whole lot of expensive hassle you may need to rethink your strategy - either a shorter haircut or a hat!! For grey hair to work it needs to look like you are grey on purpose. You need to make a feature of it - so all grey hair, be it long or short, needs a good haircut that screams - I do care about my hair and have chosen not to dye it. This is especially important for long grey hair which can make a very dramatic statement, but if you want that statement to be more Emmylou Harris than crazy cat lady spend the money you save on colour and invest in a great cut. Using the appropriate hair products is important in keeping silver tresses in tip top shape. Grey hair tends to be more coarse and thick than the rest of the hair on your head and can turn yellow or brassy from environmental stresses such as chlorinated water, hard water minerals and even medications. These all leave deposits on the outer hair shaft which stain it yellow. Normally the yellow hue is masked by natural hair pigments but since grey hair has no pigmentation the yellow stain shines through the translucent grey hair. To remove the yellow residue you need to use a clarifying shampoo especially formulated to remove debris buildup. You can then follow with a shampoo specifically formulated for grey hair which contains a purple tint hair colour additive to tone down any yellow residue accumulated between shampoos. Working on the premise that complementary colours neutralise their opposites, the purple tint cancels out the yellow
but I suggest limiting your use of the purple tinted shampoo to once every week or two to avoid your hair taking up a violet cast. You are looking to eliminate brassiness, not join the blue rinse brigade!! When you are not using the clarifying or colour correction shampoos, use a hydrating shampoo and conditioner to soften and improve grey hair texture and tame any frizzies. By the way - you cannot go grey and expect to wear the same colours in makeup and clothing as you wore previous to your silver transformation. You will need to rethink your colours because grey hair is like a halo of cool light around your face which can fade your features and give your complexion a ‘washed out’ look. So for cheeks and lips think bold shades of colour applied very softly and steer clear of brown shades that will dull your complexion. Blush applied to the cheekbones and tip of the chin in tones of rose, peony, peach or raspberry will help make the complexion more vibrant and lip colours in pink, berry, peach and apricot will define the lips. Add emphasis to eyes with smoky grey, soft taupe, navy, slate and charcoal eye shadows and continue to keep the palette cool with charcoal or navy eyeliner and black mascara. Your favourite wardrobe colours may no longer work for you either. Avoid autumnal colours with warm yellow or mustard tones or pastel colours which can be aging and switch to the cooler side of the colour spectrum. The best colours are intense jewel - like tones such as purple, violet, sapphire and fuchsia teamed with black, white and navy. Grey is the new colour, not the absence of colour, and pewter, charcoal, platinum and silver are just some of the fifty shades of grey to choose from. Expat Seniors in bangkok
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PediManiCure at Bastien Gonzalez Studio at the Intercontinental Hua Hin By Anon
I would have fallen asleep during this luxurious experience, except that I enjoyed the pedicure too much to miss any part of it. Perfect soothing music, temperature, ambient decor and lighting. Sterilised and personal pedicure implements that belong in a medical kit more than in a spa: hence the name ‘pedi-cure’. A comfortable medical chair and pillows. Not to mention a very skilled and knowledgeable podiatrist who explains every step of the pedicure procedure.
Though I have a pedicure every several weeks, nothing prepared me for the PediManiCure Studio by Bastien Gonzalez. Alex (the podiatrist), explained each step of the process. He explained the importance of flexibility and strength in the feet and the need for daily foot care. He told me that there are twice as many nerve endings on the sole of your feet as there are on your palm of your hand. Probably explains why feet are so ticklish and hands are not! Alex was a podiatrist in a geriatric ward for many years, and treated all sorts of foot problems. I asked him about diabetic foot care, and he told me that the most important aspect of diabetic foot care is a daily check up of the feet and toes. Since diabetics lose feeling in their feet, they can step on an object without realising it, as the pain does not register. The injury can quickly become septic as the ‘victim’ is often unaware of it for days on end. Alex likened working in the geriatric ward to being on an assembly line; people needed treatment all day. It was during this time that Alex trained under Bastien Gonzalez. He now spends more time with each client, 46
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and believes that by getting to know them he is better able to help them with problems of posture or foot care. He did not soak my feet in water as he said that water immediately made your skin look healthier. I had not known that it is impossible to distinguish dead from healthy skin once the skin surface is wet. He used a small tool to remove a minute top layer of the nail, removing discolouration caused by wearing nail polish too long, but couldn’t remove white spots, as he explained that these are caused by a separation of the nail and the skin bed. Dead skin from the cuticles were next removed but my cuticles were not pushed back. Alex explained that the cuticle is a barrier between the nail and nail bed, and once cut, grows back harder and less flexible. Pushing back the cuticle can also damage the matrix of the nail. After the cuticle was treated, each nail was shaped with a ceramic file. The file can be used to shorten nails, but is much better used as a shaping device. The benefit of a ceramic file is that there are no snags in the nail and it will not damage skin surrounding it. The disadvantage is that if you drop the nail file, you will have
two or sometimes four new ones in its place, depending on from what height you drop it! A mother of pearl paste was applied to my nails next, and they were buffed with a chamois buffer. A thorough gentle foot massage finished the treatment and left my feet feeling quite pampered indeed. I did not ask for nor was I offered colour. Though Bastian Gonzalez has a complete range of products, including nail polish that is not harmful for nails, my toes were so pretty I didn’t want polish. Alex told me that polish should be treated like makeup: put on and taken off so that the nails are not damaged. Finally, I asked about shoes. “High heeled shoes are beautiful,” he said. “They make a woman’s legs and body look good. But they should not be worn every day or all day. Going barefooted is better than wearing flat heeled shoes,” he said “and the optimum height for a day shoe is 2 or 3 centimetres in height for women, and 1 to 2 centimetres for men. The effects of the pedicure should last about a month for people over fifty, but longer for
younger people. The pedicure at Bastian Studio was 75 minutes well spent with tangible returns in both appearance and in health. I know that I will be coming back for more! Expat Seniors in bangkok
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The grey nomad explores By Rose Groening
NEPAL
It’s a not uncommon sight. Silver haired couples with or without walking poles, wearing hiking boots, smiling almost conspiratorially at each other, sauntering down the street. They are not looking at the trekking clothes, or the tanka paintings, or the hemp shops or the music or book stores. They might stop for a cup of tea or coffee and a pastry.
Are they reliving trips they made before they got jobs, got married, had children? Are they filling a life long dream? Are they ticking an item on a bucket list? Why are they in Nepal this fine March? I decided to ask them what they were doing and why, and here are some of the people and the answers they gave. The first couple I met was in the Helping Hands shop. They were buying hand woven shawls that had been made by deaf and mute weavers. The colours were soft and beautiful if the yarn was dyed with natural dyes and
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very enthusiastic if the dyes were man made. The couple was from Luxembourg, I found out, and they were travelling because Nepal was a safe place to travel. Were they trekking? No, they were walking but not trekking. No paragliding or other adventures for them, but they were seeing the outlying villages and walking through the town, eating snacks and enjoying the sun. Had they been here as hippies? No, they hadn’t! Had I? No, it was my first time here as well. Well, then, why didn’t I visit them in Luxembourg? And on that happy note, we parted company, each well pleased with our purchases.
The second couple was from Italy. We were stranded in a book store during an ice storm, and the overflowing gutters were running waves of brown water down the streets. I asked if they were visiting a second time and they were not. They were on their way to Delhi and a friend had arranged the tour. They were not going to trek, or paraglide or do much except look around. They were fine, fit looking people and easy to speak with. They had not been part of the hippie movement, he said, because he was a drummer and loved his music too much to mess it up. She spoke very little English but nodded in agreement with him. The third couple was from Holland. We met them while we were walking along Lake Side, heading for brunch (which was excellent) at Mike’s café. It was their third time in Nepal and they were staying for several months this time. They were missionaries. I asked if they trekked and she said that she wanted to, but his knees were so bad that he could not climb. They
wanted to go to the Peace Pagoda, but feared that he would not be able to climb the hill on which it sits. I suggested that he use sticks as I had used them to climb Sarankot and the sticks really helped. We parted, they to take photographs of three enormous buffalo grazing beside the footpath, us to eat. Then I made an error. What I took for a couple turned out to be business owner and customer. I climbed to the top of Peace Pagoda Hill and a charming smiling woman invited me to have a cup of tea at her shop. An equally charming man was speaking with her. I declined the tea but asked her what she was doing and she ran the guest house and restaurant at the top of the hill. It’s called Peace Dragon Lodge and it’s on Trip Advisor if you would like to check it out. Juliette is from the United Kingdom and claims that she is not fit, that she doesn’t’t walk up and down the hills, and that the one time she did walk down to Pokhara, she was exhausted and sore. Looking at her I would doubt that, as she Expat Seniors in bangkok
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looked fit and trim to me, but that is her story. The man talking to her was her guest it turns out, and he suggested that the hippies now found Pokhara too civilised and had moved on. That, said Juliette, or they had died. My fifth attempt was in Kathmandu with a couple deep in conversation. They turned out to be Lions who built and were supporting a girls’ school near Kathmandu. The girls learned sewing and other skills and were between 17 and 25 years old. It is a way to add income to Nepalese families, my newly found friends said. The couple were united only in the fact that they were both Swedish and both Lions. Very entertaining and agreeable, they offered to bring any hippy they found to the Tibet Guest House where I am staying, so that I can interview them. Two people whose accent sounded American were working on computers at the Guest House, so I asked if I could take their photos, from the back, to use as illustrations for this article. They said they were indeed Americans and didn’t mind if I used their photographs from the front. Had they been hippies? Indeed not! The opposite of hippies. He served in the US Army as a helicopter pilot and he loves flying. He taught paragliding and spent time in Pokhara paragliding. The couple had done an eight day trek. They did look fit and happy, and they had not any idea if there were hippies in Kathmandu.
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My last attempt was a white haired man in purple monk’s robes having lunch by himself. Surely, he would fit what I originally thought was a stereotype. But no, he was from Kiev, where his mother still lives, and he now lives in the United States. He is bringing a group of scholars to Nepal to study Buddhism. He has a PhD and even if he had been able to visit in the 60’s (he was too young to have done so) he said he would have been studying. He has visited Tibet but can’t bear the sadness of the loss of Buddhism there, and so brings people to Nepal. He had some theories on the Ukraine and Putin and the Crimea, but they are outside my present scope. I left him to finish the details for the group he is bringing to Kathmandu in a few days. I was just finishing talking with him when my friend rushed up to me and said “Someone has found a hippie for you!” I spoke with a very pleasant and vague sounding man, who called himself a hippy. He was not yet 30. I happily conclude that the silver haired people here are NOT hippies returning to the scene and scent of their youth. Each of the ones I met had a different motive and came from a different place. The diversity of countries and purposes amazes and enchants me. Nepal is not only a safe place to visit, but also full of fascinating people, both local and foreign. Namaste!
What to do? Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Hua Hin and two quieter spots – Chiang Rai and Rayong are considered the most popular and best places to live in Thailand. But as so many expat seniors live in Pattaya, Pattaya has been included as a fifth major destination. As a senior, you may be retired or you may be working. If you are working, either online or with a work permit here in Thailand, there is no need to help you fill in the day. But if you are retired, you may have come here for the golf or the sailing or another sport. Below are some links to help you find sports clubs in Thailand. Golf More details on golf courses and clubs will follow in future editions of Expat Seniors. It is worth noting that Hua Hin won the 2013 award for best golf destination in Asia. In Chiang Mai, there are seven golf courses within 30 minutes and another six further out. www.chiangmaigolfcourses.com Bangkok lists twenty golf courses within driving distance. www.1golf.eu/en/golfcourses/thailand/cities/bangkok/
Eight golf courses are located within 30 minutes drive of Hua Hin, with more further out. www.tourismhuahin.com/golf-huahin.php Pattaya lists twenty golf courses on www.golfasian.com/golf-courses/thailand-golfcourses/pattaya/ And Phuket www.phuket.com/ golf/ has six different courses. www.thailandgolfcourse.com/GolfCourse/main%20 golfcourse.htm - map of golf courses in Thailand. Sailing Chiang Mai obviously does not have a beach or access to the sea and therefore no yacht club! Both Pattaya and Phuket have a yacht club and Samui and a Chonburi each have a yachting association. Hua Hin has the Hua Hin Naval Yacht Club and a regatta is held there each August. Bangkok does not have a yacht club but it does have a condo development named Bangkok Yacht Club! Use this web site if you are thinking of living on a boat and travelling about using Thailand as your home base. http://bangkok.angloinfo.com/ information/lifestyle/sports-and-leisure/sailing/ For other types of clubs, see www.escapethailand.com/sports_thailand.html
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Reflections on a trip to Kanchanaburi, Hell Fire Pass 23 - 25 April 2004 ANZAC Day Service By Doug Lambert
A group of expats from New Zealand and Australia spent a meaningful weekend about 80 kilometres north of Kanchanaburi, which is located north of Bangkok. The purpose of our trip, apart from the social aspect of going away from work, was to attend the special ANZAC Day service held at Hell Fire Pass.
Hell Fire Pass is of special significance because it was here under Japanese domination during the Second World War that captured prisoners of war (mostly Australians, Thai, some Dutch, British and New Zealand soldiers) were forced to build a section of the railway line that was to connect Thailand and Burma. Their task was to dig that pass by hand through solid rock which often reached to a depth of 20 metres. They had to contend with the tropical heat and rain, the cold of the night, inadequate food rations, mosquitos, snakes, insect pests and jungle diseases. As a result of all these factors, coupled with the strenuous conditions imposed by their captors, the death rate was simply horrendous. The experiences of the soldiers were popularised in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai. Whilst the film itself was fictional, the bridge, and the experiences of those who built it, was very real. Our trip to Kanchanaburi took about three hours from Bangkok and then we were to travel on another 80 km to our hotel as we wanted to attend the ANZAC Dawn Service which was to be held at Hell Fire Pass. As we left Bangkok, I could see a huge pall of smoke and thought it was strange that 52
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there would be rice fields being burnt off right in the middle if the city. The smoke got thicker and thicker and we could not work out what it was. By the time we were out of Bangkok, I gave it little thought. I suppose it was around 7:30pm when we arrived at our hotel, which was built on the banks of the swiftly flowing river, whose name I do not know. We had booked a hotel which was a series of little bungalows built out over the river on pontoons, the effect of which was rather quaint. They were air conditioned as well as cooled by fans if we so wished which came as a welcome relief considering the humid conditions. At the back of each unit was a lovely little balcony area where we could sit and watch the river rushing past, further adding to the feeling of tranquillity. The hotel accommodated mostly Australians, some of whom had come in tour groups. Of this group, there were only a few of the old Diggers in attendance. Meals were served in a main dining room area which was rather flash. The hotel was a huge complex with two large swimming pools. Our granddaughter experienced her first tropical downpour and thunder and lightning storm not long after we arrived. It was not the loudest storm we have ever experienced but good enough to give her a little idea of what she was in for, as the
rains had not reached us in Bangkok as yet. The whole country seemed desperate for rain, and our granddaughter and I loved the storm, as it had been almost six months since we experienced any downpour. It rained so heavily that we could not leave our bungalow to make the short journey up the many steps to the dining room for some time! When we returned to our room (after a filling, but unremarkable meal), I took the opportunity to catch the evening news. It was then that I learnt that a fire had broken out in the centre of Bangkok. It was the worst fire in 17 years, destroying many slum houses and leaving about 6,000 people homeless. Fortunately nobody had died or was injured, although many people lost everything in that fire. It was a sobering reminder of how fortunate we were, and set the mood for our stay. On Saturday 24th April, we decided to take the van to the most western part of Thailand to a place called the Three Pagodas Pass, which
sits right on the border between Thailand and Burma (Myanmar). The drive was wonderful and so different from many other parts of Thailand, as the mountains layered one upon the other as they disappeared into the distance - not overly high but just beautiful. The soft greens of the jungle were great to see and the houses and the way the land was utilised was so different from central Bangkok. We drove past a lake that was picturesque but in places showed testimony to the lack of rain as the water level had shrunk right back from the edge of the lake. Once at the border we got out of the van to stretch our legs and wander, and to take photographs at the border. If we wanted to we could have crossed into Myanmar if we paid 10USD, each but decided not to as we had planned to holiday there for Christmas. We started our return journey at about 1:30pm, and I must say I enjoyed the trip back just as much as our initial one, taking in all I could as we drove through the countryside. The road Expat Seniors in bangkok
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was in very good condition. We discovered that some long sticklike cuttings that were standing in so many of the fields were tapioca cuttings. We had seen many of these bundles placed in large ploughed fields waiting to be planted so that mystery was solved. On arriving back at our hotel around 4:00pm, we spent quite a lot of time in the beautiful swimming pool. Most of the guests were Australian and had come to this area for the same reason as us. The pool area was beautifully set out with tropical gardens and trees and looked very luxurious. One of the pools had a hydro slide that our granddaughter decided to use and curiosity got the better of me and I joined in with her adventure. I had been on a few of these slides before, and not for a moment did I think about checking the depth of the pool at the bottom of this particular slide! My granddaughter went down first and I followed, ending up landing right on my tail bone in just over a metre of water. This was a really painful experience! My granddaughter was fascinated with the dozens of lizards, mostly geckos, that were everywhere both in and outside the buildings. They liked to congregate wherever the light shone, and also attracted a veritable smorgasbord of insects. They lizards and geckos served to keep the insect population in check, and we watched them performing their nightly dance. Bats would join in on the insect-meal, and they would come out at dusk to feast upon the thousands of tiny flying insects. These little bats were fast and manoeuvred this way and that, catching their tucker on the wing. They were no bigger than the palm of my hand and a darkish brown in colour, and truly fascinating to watch. In order to attend the dawn parade, we woke at 4:15am and left before eating breakfast, 54
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starting our journey with an 8km drive from the hotel, followed by a fairly steep walk down into Hell Fire Pass. Just to walk along through the pass where they laid the train line that linked Thailand and Burma was a moving experience. The railway line had to be chiselled out of solid rock, and with the work done by hand, and to a depth of about 20 metres. To see what those poor guys had to cut through, with nothing in the way of tools other than hand drills, hammers, picks and the like was emotive. Thousands of men died from starvation and disease, and thousands more from the cruel torture techniques used by their captors. We were in no doubt as to the terrible conditions for those who had toiled there. This coupled with the tropical jungle climate and diseases that it brought must have made the hardship impossible to bear. There were a few hundred of us walking that path on that morning, each with a bamboo lamp (I still have mine, kept as a meaningful memento). Once we reached our destination, we gathered to prepare for the service, which started at about 5:40am, the same time as our own ANZAC services. The Australian Ambassador and other dignitaries were present (it being Australia’s turn to host, as Australia and New Zealand host the service on alternate years) and it was a simple, meaningful affair. There were sons, and grandsons with their father’s or grandfather’s medals on display. There was of course the Last Post played as a duet by a couple of soldiers and then a lone piper played after the laying of the wreath. We felt that it was good for our granddaughter to experience such an event. At the conclusion of the service it was light, and we made our way back through the pass, walking up some two hundred steps (oh my aching back) and spent some time in the nearby
museum. The museum had a very accurate record and sound visual display tracing the history of the Hell Pass Railway. It was from this that I learned a little more about the history surrounding the place. It was called Hell Fire because of the horrific way in which the prisoners of war were treated, and how much of that work (Operation Speedo) was performed at night in the light of diesel fuel lanterns. There were plaques which outlined the historical facts related to this project, and also served to commemorate the memory of those who died so horrifically. Outside the museum they were serving hot pies and a ration of Australian Bundaburg Rum in your tea if you wanted it. We decided to skip the long lines and headed back to the hotel for breakfast, and then by 9: 30am we were packed. We took our gear up and loaded it into the van that travelled slowly back to Bangkok, stopping at Kanchanaburi for some time to walk onto the famous River Kwai Bridge (rebuilt of course, and nothing like the original structure). The area today is nothing like what was represented in the film of the same name. Both banks of the river are now set out like a park, and I hope to return to this place one day, as I want to look at the cemetery as well as the township It was very hot so we only spent about three quarters of an hour walking around this area
which really catered for the tourists, with almost all of the stalls selling jewels, (no doubt synthetic stones - rubies, sapphire, emeralds, gold and jade etc.) at cheap prices. We couldn’t help but admire the craftsmanship, even if the goods were fake. Some of the jewellery was very attractive and we bought some brooches to give as presents to friends back home. We also spoiled the granddaughter by buying her some little brooches, which we wanted to put on her hat. This area it is known for its pomelo, which is one of my favourite citrus fruits, and I have it almost every day for breakfast. Similar to grapefruit and about the size of a soccer ball, it is sweeter than grapefruit and very fleshy - I love it! I must have eaten kilogrammes of prawns (not usually a breakfast food, but I would if they were on offer, as they are just so cheap here) and overall my stomach really enjoyed the time we spent in this part of the country! It was good to arrive home reasonably early as it gave us time to relax and to get ourselves organised to go back to school on Monday. It was a very good trip and the ANZAC service was well worth attending. I hope that we are able to travel next year to the service in Burma, and I recommend it as an excellent destination for all who may be inclined or thinking of visiting, especially for the service.
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What’s that smell? By Steve Courso
Next time you step foot into a luxury hotel take a minute to consider the many ways your senses are stimulated by the design, lighting, music and nowadays, the fragrance. Most major hotel chains, including Sofitel, Le Meridien and the Ritz Carlton, already diffuse their unique aromas throughout their properties. Now smaller hotel brands have started focusing on fragrances as well.
More and more hotels are looking to give you a local scent experience as soon as you walk in the door or when you are in your room. Capitalising on the strength of olfactory memories, they’re partnering with local scent companies to choose aromas that represent the idea and appearance of the hotel and give it a sense of place. In fact, many have taken scent branding a step further and begun selling a hotel fragrance in sprays, sticks and candles for you to purchase. Hoteliers hope that whiffs of these scents will make you link their properties with positive memories and emotions as well as to establish and market their brand. They hope that you will talk favourably about their hotel. Hospitality chains are commissioning perfumers to design specific scents that will help customers identify their brand, endorse it and come back for more and boutique hotels are doing the same. The belief is that the hotel brand can be enhanced through scent. With their own signature scent, hotels will create an individual and unique connection with their guests. Westin Hotel & Resorts employ White Tea and the Sheraton Hotels & Resorts employ Welcoming Warmth, a mix of fig, jasmine and freesia. Brand identity is more critical than ever before, as more and more businesses and products compete for consumer attention across an ever increasing variety of channels. Our senses play a vital and complex role 56
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in forming our thoughts, impressions and behaviours. By targeting the senses, brands establish a stronger and enduring emotional connection with their customers. An example of a hotel using local products to scent its property is The House Hotel in Turkey that uses Lokum, a local Istanbul company to provide candles, perfumes, and even edible Turkish Delight delicacies. The House Hotel’s Bosphorus location has specifically chosen the brand new “Istanbul Rituals” scent as its signature smell. How important is the sense of smell? Very important! What we smell influences much of our behaviour. •T he sense of smell is the first sense developed in the womb •T he average person is able to recognise over 10,000 scents over their lives •O ur sense of smell is responsible for 80% of what we taste •W e identify smells even when we sleep • 7 5% of our emotions are related to smell •S mell triggers memory and behaviour patterns Ambient scenting became the practice in casinos in the early 2000’s and invaded the hospitality section soon after. High-end fashion stores have joined with hotels to scent their outlets. For instance one store may want a fresh air scent, and another may want the store to smell like fresh cotton. Hugo Boss the luxury fashion brand
started to scent their stores about five years ago after testing three different smells in their showrooms. One significantly stood out, a musky smell with a little bit of citrus and about three years ago the scent was put into every single store. Scent providers meet with their clients to develop a fragrance that is in line with what the brand’s customers like and with what the company is trying to accomplish. A team of fragrance designers and chemists then tailor a scent to meet the business’s goals in a process similar to designing a luxury perfume. The specially designed smell will appeal to the type of customer the brand is trying to connect with. The customer profile is carefully studied, looking at points such as age, gender and occupation, what music they like, how often they buy technology and so on.
When working with a department store, scent use gets more complicated. Specific scents can be customised for specific departments, such as baby powder smell for children section, or a coconut smell in the swimwear department and then lilac fragrance in the lingerie section. There are seasonal smells too. Many retail stores use scent during the Christmas and New Year’s season. A variety of fragrances are used to create a holiday smell with the use of notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, evergreen, cranberry, citrus and cedar. Customers feel more comfortable and this will influence sales. Customers visit three times more sections in stores when exposed to fragrance – and longer time in the store means more purchases. Because scent marketing is so effective at increasing sales in a retail setting, we might lose sight of the fact that there are plenty
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Times Square in NYC and was disappointed with the sales results. The problem was that all the packaging was sealed and there was no smell of chocolate in the store. Chocolate fragrance was then added via a machine and sales shot up.
of other benefits to using scent in a work environment. For example, research has shown that employees are happier, more productive and absent less frequently when their office environment has natural elements, like sunlight, flowers and plants all of which create a familiar atmosphere. A large element of our comfort with nature is the familiar aroma. Scent can be used to improve mood, make employees more alert, reduce clerical errors and stimulate cooperation. In a Japanese study workers exposed to a lemon scent made 54% fewer data entry errors than those working in unscented areas. Fragrances such as lavender, orange or vanilla can help ease tensions in business negotiations, during mediation and in other high stress confrontational situations. Aroma can also encourage teams to work better on projects and preparations for presentations. And of course the smell of food makes you hungry and encourages sales. The smell of food is easy to package and introduce into stores. You must have walked by the stand that sells chocolate chip cookies and smelled the delicious aroma. Thinking that they are freshly baked you bought one only to find that they were cold and tasted a bit stale. The cookie smell was not coming from the oven but from a small machine in the ceiling. The scent was packaged and diffused through the stand. Similarly, many bakeries use the smell of fresh bread to entice their customers. One very large producer of chocolate opened a large store in 58
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One large doughnut shop chain in Korea wanted to sell more coffee in this traditional tea drinking country along with their doughnuts. A film clip was developed to play on buses packed with early morning commuters along with a jingle about coffee. At the end of the clip, coffee scent was released on the bus. At the next bus stop was one of the brands outlets. Coffee sales soared. From the hotel door, to the shop floor, to a business, from the bakery shop to the department store, scent is used to make you remember, linger, feel good and behave the way the people who introduce the scent want you to behave. One of the largest scent providing companies in the world is ScentAir with over 1600 fragrances in their library. In Thailand the use of fragrance is at the beginning stage. ScentAir, the market leader in providing fragrance, has recently opened an office in Bangkok. ScentAir is able to develop the right aroma for a hotel, a shop or a business – we should smell more of this company very soon.
Made in Thailand By Pamela Burgin
Thailand enjoys a deserved reputation for exquisite arts and crafts. Travelling in rural areas, it remains easy to meet local Thai artisans and admire their work. Nevertheless, in many of the Kingdom’s major tourist destinations, it has become a challenge to find authentic souvenirs that are actually made in Thailand. Wandering through the ubiquitous ‘night markets,’ in Chiang Mai, Phuket or Hua Hin, shop after stall is filled with bric-a-brac, much of which is made in China and India.
Beyond the difficulty of finding a unique gift, the glut of cheap souvenirs raises concerns about the future of painstakingly crafted Thai arts and crafts. A hand dyed and woven length of Thai silk, for example, can take weeks to complete and will necessarily be more costly than a piece spun off a factory loom. The culture of hard bargaining is further exacerbating this trend toward the cheep and cheerful. Shoppers often do not appreciate the time and skills invested into handmade crafts, unwittingly helping to barter away their profitability, while pushing market vendors further towards imitations and imports.
Road, the royal city’s most atmospheric and charming walking street, lined with pretty wooden shop houses and delicious restaurants, which offer mouthwatering dishes from seafood, to Swiss fondue and French haute cuisine. Along the way, I stumbled across The Family Tree, a petite boutique with a big dream, making an admirable effort to celebrate and support Thai arts. The Family Tree was established in July 2011 by Premruethai (Dtor) and her English husband, Peter, who has lived in Thailand for over 15 years. The shop supports Thai artisans, family businesses, and social and environmental initiatives by presenting
The Thai government’s One Tambon One Product (OTOP) programme, Fair Trade, social enterprise and other movements are pushing upstream, creating some opportunities for Thai artisans to stand up, stand out and reach customers. However it remains rare to find such products in the heart of shopping areas. A recent visit to Hua Hin found me enjoying an evening stroll down Naresdumri Expat Seniors in bangkok
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their stories and products to tourists and the retiree community. All products sold at the Family Tree are made in Thailand. Products are sourced from over 30 different community groups, NGOs and other good causes. Treasures inside include stunning, natural dyed Thai silks, produced by rural artisan groups, hand-made silver jewellry, stainless steel tableware made by the descendants of Ayutthaya’s sword smiths and hand milled soaps made with fresh Thai herbs. An entire section of the shop is dedicated to presenting recycled and up cycled products, made from paper, leather, silk and plastic. An unusual collection of ceramic cups, vases and candle holders with elephant motifs were nestled into another corner of the shop. When I enquired about additional colours, I learned that each piece is individually crafted, and the store owners themselves often wait two months to get their turn in the queue. According to owner (Dtor), the highlight of the Family Tree is the deep black Thai silk, hand dyed with ebony seeds. Ebony seeds bloom in the rainy season, producing a dark green dye of unusual richness. This is massaged into the silk which is then hung in direct sunlight, turning the dye from green to deep black. Insufficient rain or sun means that the dyers must wait for an extra year to finish their work! The couple’s warm enthusiasm for their treasures and artisan partners is infectious. This is reflected in excellent feedback for the store on review sites such as Trip Advisor, 60
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where The Family Tree has held the number one spot for shopping in Hua Hin since 2012. The shop is dotted with photographs of happy customers and some of these images are posted on their Facebook page. “Peter and I started to work in my home village in 2006, helping the local ladies to continue their culture of natural dyed silk, improve their cutting and stitching skills, and earn some supplementary income,” Dtor explained. “In 2011, when our children had reached school age, Peter and I decided to open a shop that could offer Thai silk from my area, as well as other handmade and meaningful products from around the country. The Family Tree wants to give visitors to Hua Hin the chance to learn about Thai crafts and about (the) good work which is being done in Thailand to support local people and the environment.” The young couple invested their entire savings into the little shop, turning an old noodle store into a clean blue and white boutique, perfect for the seaside! Initially, Dtor and Peter requested assistance from Thaicraft, Thailand’s first fair trade organisation, which introduced them to fair trade suppliers in Thailand. Fourteen producer groups agreed to give the Family Tree a consignment deal for the first six months, to help the shop to get on its feet. By the end of the first year, the Family Tree had earned enough money to buy their stock outright, and by the end of the second year they were able to take modest salaries. “Fair trade and the environment are at the heart of what the Family Tree is working towards,” explained
Peter. “Our vision is to create a space for small scale producers and producers from impoverished parts of Thailand who would not usually be able to afford a shop in Hua Hin, as well as inspired artists and environmentally friendly products. We believe that this work is beautiful and valuable, and we want to share that with our guests. In the future, as we grow, we plan to conduct more training in the field for our producer partners.” Dtor and Peter also explained their Greener Tomorrow tree planting project, which was initiated in partnership with Buddhist monks in 2009. The project raises money to buy disused paddy, donate it to a local temple and plant trees. To date, over 40,000 trees have been planted. The Family Tree have donated over $3,000 USD and campaigned to raise over $10,000 USD. Most recently the couple raised funds to pay half of the cost of a solar powered water pump, to irrigate trees planted between 2009 and 2012. Their goal is to ensure that one tree is planted for every 1000B in turnover at the Family Tree. Their customers and businesses around Thailand have given them great support. In October 2013, the Family Trees efforts were recognised by winning a top three spot in the Asia wide, Inspiring Stories from Destinations Award, organised by Wild Asia, the Green Travel Circuit and Leisure Southeast Asia. Far away from the clutter of factory souvenirs, my visit to the Family Tree reaffirmed the value of Thai arts and crafts. Stories of hard work being done by government projects, NGOs and foundations around Thailand inspired me. The couple knows the stories of the people who made of all the products in the shop, and welcome each guest with friendly warmth and sincere interest. I left with a coconut and jasmine scented bath mitt, coconut body scrub and
jasmine and coconut body lotion. I also took away a ‘Green Map’ of Hua Hin which Peter helped to put together that is different from any other map I have seen of this sea side town. Companies that are trying to do something positive for local communities and the environment are included in the map, and the ways in which they are trying to make a difference are also described. Dtor and Peter are not rich in money, but they are wealthy in stories, in culture, experience and good works. Next time you visit Hua Hin I recommend strolling into the Family Tree to chat with them about their goals and their products. By spending your money, you will be supporting Thai artisans and communities, a forest monastery, the preservation of Thai culture, and concrete efforts to make a difference.
CULTURE, NGOs & THE ARTS
The modern By Bea Toews
ART SCENE
in Bangkok
Did you buy Thai art to decorate your home in Thailand? Did you support local Thai artists? Did you choose hand painted copies of the masters? Did you buy sequined and beaded fabric to hang in your home? Do you have collections of statues? Any or all of these Thai art forms could decorate your abode, but in the not too distant past, your choice would not have been as wide as it now is.
Until quite recently, art in Thailand tended to be religious sculptures or murals, and was most often found in temples and in the homes of wealthy or travelled people. Portraits of royalty or the family were widely used to decorate the majority of homes as well. Expats brought their own art work with them, commissioned works or used the existing, largely religious themed pieces in their homes because that was what was available. Officially, Thai modern art began with Silpa Bhirasri, formerly Corrado Feroci (1892-1962), an Italian sculptor who settled in Thailand in the late 1920s and became known as “the father of modern Thai art.” Painters chose for
their subject matter realistic portrayals of everyday life, and their stated purpose was to create a sense of nationalism. Realism and heroic realism were two forces used to create a sense of modern Thai identity. Farming and village life was idealised and military heroes were painted. The Royal Family was and continues to be a popular subject. Notable artists in the classical tradition include Chakrapan Posayakrit, Chalermchai Kositpipat and Tawan Dachanee. Younger up and coming artists include Porntaweesak Rimsakul, Yuree Kensaku, Jirapat Tatsanasomboon, Kritsana Chaikitwattana and Thaweesak Srithongdee (illustrations for these artists). Thai art moved rapidly through the impressionist, post-impressionist and cubist styles of painting, all used to portray typically Thai scenes. In spite of a move in the 50’s and 60’s to a romanticised form of Thai art, the pressure from avant-garde painters steadily increased. In 1960, avant-garde painters boycotted the prestigious National Art Competition and it was a result of the King’s intervention at a Royal tea party that the two factions were finally brought together. Modernism proved strong to resist and surrealism swept the modern Thai art scene. The fantastic outlook of Dali and Magritte appealed to a country and people rich in folklore, ghosts, legends and shifting reality. Surrealism, known as ‘surr’ to Thai artists, fills a large nice in the Museum of Contemporary Art (reviewed in Expat Ladies in 2014), and examples of surrealist art can be found in every gallery. Some ‘surr’ painters are Somchai Hatthakitkosol, Princess Marsi Paribatra, Kiettisak
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Channonart, Virote Nuibutr, Kham-Ai Dejdoungtae and Tuan Trirapichit (illustrations). The art scene in Thailand has evolved rapidly over the last twenty years. Widespread education, changing tastes, increased travel, the growth of the middle class and exposure to different decorating styles (amongst other things) created awareness of and a demand for secular art in Thailand. Artists produced and were able to sell contemporary art that was not religious or royal in its content. They were able to paint not as an expression of political or religious beliefs, but for a market that had the space to hang the art and the money to buy it. Long term expats who had grown accustomed to the sculptures and murals of Buddha welcomed the exhibition of more contemporary and secular art and its popularity continues to thrive today.
The major museums of modern art are the MOCA and the Museum of Modern Art. But there are many galleries that have modern Thai art for sale. Look East magazine, February, has a list of some of the contemporary art museums and galleries in Bangkok. It includes a handy map if you are a stranger to Bangkok. The website http://rama9art.org has a complete list of galleries in Bangkok and in the provinces. Each gallery listed has a link and you can see what is showing before you go to look and/or buy. Silom Galleria has a handful of galleries, among which Thaivibu is notable for showing promising work from Thailand, Vietnam and Burma. Other new galleries to be watched are Whitespace and H galleries.
It is tempting to say that Thai modern art is only derivative as the subjects, forms and colours are strongly influenced by Western artistic conventions. Secular art has flourished in the West since the Renaissance and it would be unusual if Thai artists were not affected by it. Realism in landscapes, portraits and still life have entered the modern Thai art lexicon. So has surrealism, which is very popular among painters. Other influences include the calligraphy of further east (in particular China) and the bright colours connected with India. Buddhist tradition and influence lives on and is expressed in delicate paintings and sculptures, some so abstract that the viewer must look for traces of Buddhism in the work. These influences are not derivative of Western artistic tradition. Today’s art scene in Thailand is diverse, imaginative, international, liberal and largely free of censorship – with the caveat that the Royal Family may not be pilloried. Whether your taste runs to installations, photographs, prints, video art, installation, performance art, sketches, prints, watercolours, acrylic or oil, there is something that will appeal to everyone in modern Thai art. Expat Seniors in bangkok
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Charities & activities I met Chris Tananan 12 years ago at The Thai Craft Fair. When I thought of organised charity, I immediately thought of her and the way she brings students and charities together. Chris is the CAS Coordinator, (Creative, Active and Service projects that must be completed by International Baccalaureate students in order to graduate) at the International School of Bangkok (ISB). I checked the ISB website and found the list of activities that Chris organises, but decided to visit her at school, to see if she could add any information to what was available on line. The bolded entries in the list below are open to anyone who wants to volunteer, of course.
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In school (on going)
In school (annual events)
Artfelt Panthers Amnesty International Baan Rachawadee Bangkok Cancer Support Book by Book Cross Cultural Club Elder Care ES After School Activities Gay-Straight Alliance Global Issues Network Green Panthers Habitat for Humanity Helping Paws Club Kids Action for Kids Latin Club Lights and Sounds Maharaj Boys’ Home Make a Difference Operation Smile Phyathai Babies Home Riding for the Disabled Rural Development Club School for the Blind Shining Hope Sparrow Home Street Boys Home Thai Craft Club Traffic Jam Tsunami Relief Tutoring (ES/MS/HS) Wishing Tree Club
Bangsaen Beach Trip Special Kids Olympics Thai Craft Fair at ISB
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In Community Boy Scouts / Girl Guides Coaching Community Sports Project of Student’s Own Refereeing Community Sports Summer Volunteer Work White Elephant Shop
Global Citizenship Week I found the list of charities and activities impressive and asked Chris if there was any way of determining which charity was most in need of help or could best use the skills of the volunteer. Chris directed me to “Giving Back”. The following pages describe the website of Terry Weir, whose project had been to evaluate charities. Read on to find an activity that you will enjoy and that can use your skills.
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