Attitude Adjustment

Well, since my last post where I whined about things that irritate me, chaotic traffic being a primary one, I got my attitude adjusted. I had a unique experience, I got to attend one day of a traditional seven day Thai funeral service. The man whom I rode elephants with, and have driven to and from work with every day got a phone call a couple days ago. His father-in-law had just been killed in a motorcycle and bus collision. He was riding the motorcycle.


I won't go into all the details of the service and how it differs (very much so) from American-style ones. I will just say that I got reminded once again to get my focus off of life's irritations and keep them on the people involved in my life. The irritations will always be here, my friends, co-workers and loved ones will not.

No Whine Before Its Time

There used to be a television commercial for a brand of wine, the slogan for it was "we will sell no wine before it's time." Well, I have my own version of the slogan that relates to me: "Its time for me to whine."

The photo is of a mom and her daughter driving their "restaurant on wheels" to their Sunday place of business. They have a much worse career than I. But their facial expressions match about how I feel right now.

I've been here over three weeks, and language, culture differences, project problems and work pressures are taking their toll. I was going to title this post "space,lanes and sucking teeth" but I realized my list of whiney complaints covered more ground that just those topics.

There are several things that take me from a relaxed, peaceful state to a not-so-relaxed, somewhat annoyed state. First, drifting across the lanes of the road. I have noticed that the driving habits here are not aimed at remaining centered in your lane, but seem to be aimed at remaining centered in the paved section of road. That changes when encountering a corner, where the rule seems to position your vehicle anywhere between physical barriers (trees, telephone poles, street vendors), preferrably in the lane of oncoming traffic. I'm not exaggerating to make a point. It seems that most drivers really don't want to move too far from the center of the road, so when the oncoming vehicle is within, say two car lengths away, they reluctantly move as little as necessary back into their own lanes. I have not seen side view mirrors snap off yet, but they get very close.

Second, I've noticed that a lot of the older Japanese men suck their teeth. As they slowly walk along, hands folded behind their back, they suck their teeth. It makes this little noise similar to eating jello with your mouth open, and it bugs me. I stood about 6 inches away from a man in an elevator who sucked his teeth all the way down 12 floors. I don't know why, but that bugs me. I wanted to tell him to try another nervous habit, like twiddling his thumbs or messing with his hair, just something not so noisy.

Third, eastern people drift towards other people like magnets. Even when there is room, they tend to crowd together. They don't keep a space (30-36 inches) between themselves and others, they get within 3-6 inches. I was ladling soup from a large pot into my bowl at the buffet the other day. As I brought the ladle out of the pot toward my bowl, an older Chinese woman thrust her head between me and the pot. Just about two inches away from my face. She looked into the ladle, into the post, sucked her teeth twice and drifted off to another part of the buffet. I was glad she didn't take a sip from the ladle.

Okay, I've released a little pressure from my whine bottle. Thanks for your patience. Like I mentioned, I could have it much worse, I could be driving my restaurant to work each day.

Buddha Soda II

I saw this amazing work of art on the way to the work site here in Thailand. They inlaid gold along the face of this mountain to create this. I asked the driver if he could stop so I could photograph it.
As we drove away I asked him about it. He told me it was Buddha. "Huh?" I responded, "I thought Buddha was really fat, and a man." As you can see from the photograph, this Buddha is not only slim, but looks to be female, with one breast exposed. He explained that Buddha takes on many forms, can be many things to many people, something along those lines.
Next time I'm at a Chinese restaurant in the U.S. I'll suggest to the owner that they will likely increase their business volume if they replace the fat male Buddha outside their restaurant with the slim female version, with at least one breast exposed. And don't forget the soda.
-Postsript:It turns out that I got mixed up on the whole Buddha/gender thing. I confused the image of Buddha on this mountain side to the female-looking statues that are in many of the shrines. I still don't understand completely, it is a complex religion, at least to me it is.

Buddha Soda

I noticed these colorful little buildings that were placed on the corner or roof of many private and commercial buildings. I started paying closer attention to the contents. One time I spotted an open bottle of soda, and thought that maybe a passerby had just set it there thoughtlessly. Then I noticed that many had open bottles of soda, and small bowls of food.


It turns out that these are buildings put in place to give the god(s) that inhabit that area of property a nice place to live, otherwise when you purchase, develop, and move into a property you are basically crowding out the emanations of Buddha that live there. So people provide housing, food and drink to provide hospitality to the god(s) that occupy that area. This act of kindness ensures protection and prosperity of that property, things will go well for the people who live or work on that property. That is how my friend here explained it to me.

It turns out that soda is the most popular drink offered to the god(s). Interesting. That is really all I have to say about that.

'Scuse Me, While I Kiss the Ground

The title of this post is my own version of the line from the Jimi Hendrix song "'scuse me, while I kiss the sky." Which, by the way is often mis-stated (sung) as "'scuse me, while I kiss this guy."

Anyway, I found out recently that I prefer the ground rather than the sky. I had some time on Sunday to walk Pattaya beach and decided to ride the sky trolley up to the top of Pattaya Park Tower.

I figured out something just moments after the trolley started the ascent up the long cable leading to the top of the really tall tower-I am really afraid of heights!

I am not sure of the exact height of the tower, but by my estimation it is really, really, extremely tall. The photos you see give you some idea. Some people actually jump off suspended in a harness and go down the wire, or ride a small open cage and zoom down. I got weak-kneed just watching. I did not ride in the open cage you see here, I went in the totally enclosed cage-type trolley with a solid floor designed for old people, people with high-blood pressure, and scaredy-cats. In other words, people like me.

On the way down, as the trolley creaked and groaned its way down from the outer layer of the earth's atmosphere, all I could think of was "I want to stand on earth again, and when this thing touches down I'll be telling the trolley attendant "'scuse me, while I kiss the ground."

What You Think We Do?

Everything has not gone wrong, but we have had quite a few delays, difficulties, dissapointments and just plain trouble during the past weeks as we try to complete the project here in Thailand. The workers have been putting in extra hours in the heat. The owner has had most of his facility cluttered with our crane parts for way too long. And the customer has been patiently waiting to see his vision come to fruition so he can start seeing the benefits of all the time and money spent on his project. But his patience is understandably wearing thin.

It is Saturday, we had a much-anticipated shipment of parts, the parts that are the key to completion of the project. The parts that are crucial to the function of these newly designed cranes. The parts we had ordered about 5 months ago. The photo above shows the crew getting the shipment and opening boxes. It was like Christmas, we were all so excited.

I started checking the parts. Some key parts were missing. Many of the parts were the wrong size and would absolutely not fit onto our assembly. One of the parts was the wrong model, and way too costly to ship back to the U.S. I gave everyone my assessment. "We are not going to be able to complete the project with these parts. We are going to be delayed for much longer than I can afford to stay here. The customer is not going to be happy."

The man who fills in while the owner is out of the office (the owner was out of the office) and who shuttles me between the hotel and office (sings like John Bon Jovi) asked me this question. "What you think we do?"

I had a simple, succinct answer. "We go ride elephants." And that is what we did.

Happy

This just reminds me of what is important. This is a photo of the lead actress (and good friend) in my latest movie with her kids in Arizona. I am guessing that the lead actor (John) is taking the photo.