On the way to the airport in Bangkok recently, I managed to hail the most interesting taxi.  The entire front half of the interior was decorated with coins and currency, almost all of it Thai and most of it commemorative or collectible.

The driver, who has been working on this collection for more than a dozen years, started collecting both out of interest, but also for the "good luck" brought by having the auspicious images of Thai kings posted in his taxi.

This one-baht note comes from early in the present king's reign.  His Majesty has been the monarch for more than 60 years and these days a baht (current exchange rate, about 30 baht to the US dollar) is just a coin used for change.

These early one-baht coins feature the three-headed elephant known as Erawan, borrowed from the Brahmanist traditions associated with the royal court.

Even more unusual is this 50-satang note.  A satang is 1/100th of a baht.  These days we have 25- and 50-satang coins and you only receive those as the result of rounding because of tax.  There isn't anything in Bangkok you could buy for 25 satang.

Talking about small amounts, these extremely old coins, with holes in them, are one-satang coins (1/100th of a baht).  They were introduced in 1908, near the end of the reign of King Chulalongkorn, known as Rama V.  The current king is Rama IX.  One satang!?  I wonder what that bought back in the day?

While it is common to see taxi drivers decorate their dash boards, particularly with items they think will bring them good luck, I don't recall ever seeing so extensive and interesting a collection. 

Apologies as we interrupt the regularly scheduled blogging...

Aloha and greetings from Kaua'i, the Garden Isle.  We're ending our last full day here and have had a lot of fun experiences over the last four days.  Many tales to tell and stories to share including a beautiful beach wedding, some tasty local grinds, and some gorgeous scenery.  Our return itinerary will include an overnight stay in Honolulu as well as two nights in Hong Kong.  Hopefully some additional good stories to share with you from those two stops.

Until then, please enjoy the remaining few days of pre-programmed blogs.  Mahalo!

In November 2009 I first wrote about the construction of a new mall at the northwest corner of Sukhumvit and Asoke roads called Terminal 21.  I visited the subject again in February of this year as part of an entry about the profusion of malls being built along Sukhumvit Road.  In the weeks since, I've stopped by the site, which is easily visible from the outbound platform of the Asoke BTS Skytrain station, to view the last steps of construction.

Since the mall is literally right next to both the Skytrain station (elevated) and the subway station, it should benefit from easy access.  But, in a city with strong sunlight, heavy rain showers, and lots of traffic, the more convenient and enclosed you can make that connection, the better.

Because of that, one of the things I've been observing and thinking about is how the main entry area (shown above) will connect with the two rail stations.  You can see the long concrete deck that will be the main entry area, wrapped in green construction netting.  One entrance is on the left, outlined in red metal beams, and the other is at the right end where there is a bit of a canopy being constructed.

On the west end of the deck, I can easily see how a bridge might be built to connect to the Skytrain station, which has blue-covered stairs seen on the left of the picture.  In this picture, taken a few weeks ago, I anticipated the potential bridge with orange lines.

Sure enough, by last week they were pouring the concrete reinforcements for the bridge and I imagine in another week or so they will be laying the beams for the bridge.  This will lead directly to the entrance of the Skytrain station, which I fear is a bit small to deal with the amount of passengers that may be passing through the space.

The more uncertain question is what they will do with the other entrance to the mall.  In the picture shown above, taken a few weeks ago, they were demolishing the sales office for the mall and I anticipated (in orange lines) that maybe a bridge would be built connecting to the escalators that descend to the subway.  The escalators are in the building with the bright blue roof that has one red segment.  While some re-jiggering of the wheelchair ramp in that area would be necessary, it seemed to be an easy way to get people directly to the subway, short of a tunnel leading into the station itself.

After they demolished the former sales office and finished off the edge of the entry deck, it is no more clear what they will be doing.  Certainly it will be some sort of bridge, but how it connects to anything else remains a mystery.  Complicating matters further, there is a narrow alley you see in the photo above.  This space contains a small shrine that belongs to the Asoke fresh market, located in the building with the dingy white-washed wall.  Any bridge connecting to the escalators to the subway would have to cross over this alley.  I guess there is little to do but wait and see. 

One other thing that caught my eye: there seems to be a "moat" built around the edge of the mall.  The other day there was quite a bit of water flowing down it.  Not sure if this is part of the drainage system and will be covered with grilles or what.

The other night while waiting for the train after my Thai lesson, I noticed they had the interior lights on for the first time.  It may be a bit hard to tell, but the interior is largely finished.  They are laying the tiles on the main floor and most of the shop entrances are decorated already.  I think they will be open in the next few months.

Not that far away from Terminal 21 - in fact, just two subway stops north along Asoke/Ratchadapisek Road - There is another mall being built.  This is Central Plaza Rama 9.  There is an additional development that is supposed to happen behind it - a large four-tower condo complex.  In fact, the developer was floating the idea of building a monorail that would go down Ratchadapisek Road (to the right in the picture above) and connect with the Airport Rail Link terminal at Makkasan. 

The view above is looking east from atop Fortune Town IT Mall, with the Thailand Cultural Center off to the left and Rama IX road following the bridge on the right.  Pardon the inexpert job done stitching three photos together to create this faux fisheye lens effect.

In the overnight border run I made to Singapore, I had errands to run and friends to see.  There were some interesting sights along the way.  One stop was at an IT mall, to check out some computer and camera component.  There, I saw what appeared to be the largest gathering of Singapore's next generation of geeks!

Hundreds of students on their laptops, with power strips running every which way.  They were gathered for a competition of radio-controlled race cars.  The next generation will definitely be very wired.

Also made a stop at About Books, an independent bookstore near Tiong Bahru.  Great store with an interesting range of titles as well as many other odds and ends for purchase.

Among the interesting items for purchase were these old cameras.  Beautiful, eh?

After dinner crowd: Nick, Chor Pharn, David, Otto, Edwin, Kelvin, and me.

One thing I've noticed over the past few years is that the transit system is actively trying to train Singaporeans to queue up before boarding the trains, letting passengers exit before trying to board.  From what I've seen, there's some success in these efforts.

In one friend's flat, located in a government housing tract, there were public service announcements on the elevator doors warning elderly residents from those claiming to be fortune tellers. 

"Beware strangers telling fortunes or chasing away bad luck.  Measures: Be careful if someone approaches you to tell your fortune.  Or to get rid of bad luck or evil spirits.  He's just out to cheat you.  Ignore him and he'll go away.  Tell your elderly family members not to fall for such tricks."

The evening I was in Singapore a few weeks back, I met up with a group of friends to go to a Zhap Chai Peng place.  "Zhap Chai Peng" means "mixed dishes with rice", referring to pre-made dishes.  It is colloquially known as "economy rice" because of its affordability.  The one we went to is in the Tiong Bahru neighborhood.

The clean, well-lighted shop is open-air, with the attention focused on the row of more than two dozen prepared dishes.

The selection runs the gamut from curries to stir-fries, to stews.  Meat dishes sit shoulder to shoulder with vegetarian ones.  And the influences of Singapore's many different cultures can be seen.

Bonus points if you can guess what this is.  Answer at the end of the post.

Boiled peanuts with Chinese five spice

Goose braised with soy sauce

Stir-friend squash - very beautiful color

Otak - a steamed fish mousse with spices.  The Thai counterpart to this is called hor mok and the mousse is steamed in little cups made of banana leaf and it is topped with some coconut cream. 

Bitter gourd with garlic

Salted cabbage with pork belly

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes

As for the mystery dish?  That's fried SPAM.  All in all, a tasty and inexpensive meal.  Very similar to khao gaeng shops in Bangkok, about which I'll be writing soon.

In early February I shared 14 designs I had created for "air mail" stamps and stickers.  Since I'm a fan of letter writing, I thought it would be fun to have some diversity in terms of how I indicate that my letters and postcards should travel first class air mail.

You were all very generous in providing your feedback and after taking your feedback to heart, I selected two designs to turn into rubber stamps and four designs to turn into stickers.

The marks of the rubber stamps (obviously)

And the stickers.  The quality of the printing is pretty poor.  They just used adhesive paper run through a color laser printer.  But it is a good first batch and I'll seek out a higher-quality printer in the future.  Considering that I now have something like 400 stickers, that won't be anytime soon!

Now, as to the topic of letter writing, just a reminder that April is National Card and Letter Writing Month.  If you haven't used this low tech way of staying in touch in a while, why not make it a point to sit down a write a few letters to friends and loved ones?

There's an interesting "Room for Debate" series in the NY Times titled "Rising Wealth Inequality - Should we Care?".   The series was sparked by an intriguing survey by Michael Norton and Dan Ariely that found that Americans generally estimate that wealth distribution is far more equal than it actually is and, if given a choice, they would select an even more equitable distribution as being the ideal scenario.  The graph below shows the results of the survey.

Of course there will always be a uneven distribution of wealth, and that in and of itself is not a bad thing.  Systems such as communism and socialism have proven to be an ineffective way of raising standards of living, whereas capitalism has done a pretty good job on the whole.  But are the wealthiest 1% or 10% of our nation (or of any nation) actually contributing to their society in a manner proportionate with their wealth?  Are they wealthy because they're reaping the rewards of their hard work, or is it a matter of inheritance, loopholes, and offshore accounts?

It seems that the economic theory known as "trickle-down economics" - in which you give the wealthy more of their money through a lowering of taxes in the belief that they will spend more, thus fueling economic growth - has largely been proven to be bogus.  The wealthy spend a proportionately smaller share of their income than do people further down the socioeconomic ladder.  The rest goes into investments.

What most confuses me is why so many people who are middle class or lower, are against raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy.  They seem to hold a belief that they may one day be in that top few percent and have to pay that "too high" a marginal tax rate, when in reality their only realistic chance of becoming a millionaire, let alone a billionaire, is to win the lottery.  Heck, even Warren Buffet, one of the nation's wealthiest men, says he needs to be paying a higher tax rate.

The debate series in the NY Times lays out the different perspectives, but I'm curious to hear yours:

Why don't people seem to care about rising inequality?  Is the rising inequality something we should be concerned about?  Is that lack of caring about it also something we should be concerned about?

Tomorrow morning at 6:30, Tawn and I will depart Bangkok, en route to Kaua'i to attend my cousin's wedding.  Our routing is quite interesting, via Hong Kong, Guam, and Honolulu.  More about that on my return. 

Lest you worry about a break in the updates, I'm actually so far behind (too many things to write about and not enough days in the month) that I've queued up a week's worth of entries.  And, yes, more food porn is on the way!

Meanwhile, I'll be gathering more material in the 50th State and, hopefully, meeting a Xangan who has been MIA for nearly a year.

Meanwhile, I leave you with Peter, Paul, and Mary's lovely rendition of "Leaving on a Jet Plane".

The day I filmed the Almost No-Knead Bread video, I got some extra cooking done.  It made sense to have just a little more home cooking before we head off to Kauai for my cousin's wedding.  The meal: Indian spice rub pork chops with raita (a yogurt sauce with cukes and tomatos) and Indian spice roasted potatoes.  Dessert was Swedish brownies.  And while I was at it, I whipped up a batch of meusli.

While the recipe was originally for chicken, I used pork chops in this Indian spice rub and raita combination from Joanne Choi's Week of Menus blog.  Being a mother with young children and still a foodie, she manages to balance creative, complex flavors with ease of preparation and wholesome ingredients.  The only change I would make to the recipe is to add a little bit of brown sugar and a bit of salt.  The rub could have used a touch of sweetness.

Tawn and I enjoy meusli for breakfast - although in truth I eat oatmeal most days - and I find it isn't too difficult to roast a batch of meusli when I already have the oven heated for some other baking.  Each batch is just a little different.  Based on Alton Brown's granola recipe from the Food Network, I cut back on the sugar and substitute a little orange juice instead.  I sometimes substitute different types of nuts or seeds (flax, pumpkin, or sunflower) for the cashews and almonds in his recipe.  And I add a bit of cinnamon or sometimes freshly-ground nutmeg while the meusli is still warm.  After it has cooled, I add dried fruits.  This one is a combination of cherries, dates, apricots, and raisins.  Tasty and pretty healthy, too.

Now, you see why I had to bake some healthy meusli: to offset the caloric karma that came from these wonderfully sticky and chewy brownies.  The recipe came my from friend Per's mother.  Since he's from Sweden, I think I'm going to call these my Swedish brownies.  Some brownies are too cake-like.  These have an almost mochi-like chewiness (causing me to wonder what would happen if I added just a bit of rice flour to the recipe). 

The big challenge was that the recipe was in metrics - and I don't have any dry ingredient measuring cups marked in deciliters.  Thankfully, the internet helped provide conversions and then I made note of the weight of the ingredients so I can measure by weight in the future.

Okay, enough food porn for one entry!

Trying to be an active participant in our American democracy, I subscribe to newsletter updates from my Senators and Congressional Representative.  All three of them are very conservative, more so than I am on most issues, so their newsletters often provide an opportunity for me to write them with an opposing viewpoint.

I do have to give credit to Representative Jerry Moran, though, who has started posting video responses to questions from his constituents.  At least he gives clear statements about his position on issues.  Representative Moran recently posted the above video, ostensibly in response to a question from a constituent, "What do we need to do to get President Obama to let us drill for oil and natural gas here in the U.S.?  It would certainly decrease our dependence on foreign oil."

I shared my thoughts with Representative Moran through the following email:

Dear Representative Moran:

Just finished watching your video about drilling for oil. I appreciate you providing this kind of clarity on your positions; please continue doing so. Regarding your answer, though, I have two concerns as a constituent and pragmatic American:

First, you describe this as a "battle we must win" against the Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama administration. I disagree that it is a "battle". The EPA continues to play an important role in protecting our fresh air, our clean water, and our natural environment. Perhaps you noticed the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year? Perhaps you have read the considerable scientific concern about fracking? Fossil fuels are dirty forms of energy and their extraction comes with costs to our environment. The EPA plays an important role in us considering the bigger-picture and longer-term costs, not just reacting to the price of gas at the pump.

My second concern is that you seem to be giving short shrift to non-fossil forms of energy. Sure, you mention them twice in your video but both mentions seem to be an afterthought. Any way you cut it, fossil fuels are a finite resource. We can't drill, mine, or frack our way to national security and energy independence. We need to be encouraging more investment and research in renewable energies because that is ultimately going to be a necessity in the future. China is already surpassing us in green energy technologies. Surely you want the US to remain competitive?

More drilling off the coasts or up in Alaska, more digging up of the northern plains, more fracking of the rocks beneath Pennsylvania and Ohio - all of these are very short-term, costly, and dirty fixes to our problems. It is time for a smarter, longer-term, more sustainable approach to our energy needs.

I'm curious, what are your thoughts about the U.S. energy policy?  What should we be doing differently in order to ensure energy security?

Flipping through Khun Chawadee's book Bangkok's Top 50 Street Food Stalls, I got an itching to try the Khao Mok Gai vendor on Soi Convent.  Khao Mok Gai, which alludes to a mountain of rice burying chicken, is the Thai take on chicken biryani.  Doubtlessly Indian in origin, the dish traces its more recent roots to the predominately Muslim south of Thailand.  It is a dish that is simultaneously simple and complex, one that rarely fails to satisfy.

The vendor in question has long been a fixture on the sidewalk along Soi Convent, just off Silom Road.  Just down from the Starbucks and in front of an Irish Pub, the khao mok gai vendor's cart perches on the edge of the curb with a half-dozen folding tables and plastic stools set out beneath umbrellas.

The menu is rudimentary.  The khao mok gai comes in three ways: regular for 30 baht (US$1), rice special (extra rice) for 35 baht, chicken special (extra chicken) for 45 baht, or double-double for 50 baht.

The dish is not fancy - a piece of chicken with a heaping pile of turmeric-stained rice.  Fried shallots and cucumber slices garnish and a dish of sweet chili sauce is on the side.  The rice is tasty and the chicken flavorful, though.

Don't skip the soup, which comes on the side.  Made with bits of chicken, herbs, and fried shallots, they serve this plain or spicy and its rich flavor hits the spot.

Like all street vendor places worth their salt, this cart gets very busy at lunchtime and they make their day's wages or so. Don't dilly-dally.  Eat your food, pay your tab, and get moving!

For an alternate (and Xangan) version of biryani, check out this video I made about a visit to the kitchen of Dr. Zakiah back in 2009!

First it was the cheesecake; now the bagels have arrived.  There seems to be a growing affinity for things New York (or, at least, things perceived to be in the New York style) here in Bangkok.  This trend first caught my attention a few months ago with the opening of NYCC - the New York Cheesecake shop at the Crystal Design Center.  In the last few weeks we've added another source of New York style carbs to the local dining scene: bagels.

While I'm no bagel expert, I do recognize that a really good bagel must be boiled before it is baked.  Simply steaming them (as is done in a lot of faux bagel shops) just produces doughy round bread.  In fact, last October I made two attempts at making bagels, just to understand the processes better.  Thankfully, I don't need to rely on my own bagels anymore as I can now stop at BKK Bagel Bakery to purchase some freshly boiled and baked bagels.

Tawn and I made our first visit to BKK Bagel Bakery during their soft opening in late February.  At this point they had at least a half-dozen types of bagels, several types of cream cheese spreads, and also several sandwich offerings.  Sadly, the pastrami recipe has not yet been unveiled.  We tried a simple toasted bagel with a cream cheese and olive oil spread, which had a nice, nutty taste.

I tried a roast beef sandwich that was alright but nothing to write home about.  Besides using iceberg lettuce, the roast beef was a little dry.  All of the flavor came from the generous helping of whole grain mustard.  For the price - about 250 baht (roughly US$8) - it was a little pricey.

A week ago, I stopped by a second time to bring home some bagels for breakfast.  The bagels themselves are quite nice with a good chewy texture and dense crumb.  Again, I don't claim to be a bagel expert but these certainly remind me of the bagels I've bought from bodegas in New York City.  I'm eagerly awaiting their attempt at pastrami, though.

Located in the ground floor of Maneeya Center, adjacent to the Chidlom BTS station, BKK Bagel Bakery should have a ready supply of customers: not only is Chidlom in the heart of the high-end expatriate community but the Foreign Correspondents' Club is located in the Maneeya building, too.  I wonder what will be the next New York food to be introduced here?

My cousin Jane recently asked me to share my recipe for almost no-knead bread, which I've adapted from a recipe in Nancy Baggett's "Kneadlessly Simple" cookbook and techniques from Cooks Illustrated.  This weekend I completed a video showing the recipe.  For your enjoyment:

Saturday morning so I'll wrap up the week with some bits from around the town:

Several of our friends here work for the UN, various non-government organizations (NGOs), or are attached to various embassies.  They find themselves attending any number of conferences that seem to exist for no purpose other than to keep all these governmental and non-governmental actors busy.  Here's the title sign for a meeting one friend recently found himself in:

The International Orientation Conference on UN and ASEAN Mechanisms and Conditions for a National Plan on Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance Co-hosted by the Ministry of Defence, Kingdom of Thailand and German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG). 

Whew!  Pause for a deep breath after saying that.  I'm just curious how the German-Southeast Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance managed to have only "CPG" for its initials.  Shouldn't it be GSCEPPGG?

Needless to say, I have great sympathy for my friends and should probably buy them Starbucks gift cards for their upcoming birthdays.

. . .

With a population of somewhere around 7 million, Bangkok has a fair number of parks and playgrounds.  The city does a decent job of this, although many of them are under flyovers and in the center of cloverleafs (cloverleaves?), which exposes them to pollution from passing vehicles.  This one is located at the intersection of Petchaburi (on the right) and Ekkamai (the high ground on which I'm standing) Roads, as Ekkamai flies over Petchaburi.  It contains several basketball, football, and takraw courts.

This particular playground has been adopted by Muang Thai Life Assurance, what in the US we would call an "insurance" company.  This is all well and good, but sadly their company color is a shade of pink that reminds me of nothing more than pepto bismol.  And they painted all the walls, benches, planters, and fences in this shade.

. . .

7-11 Trivia time: The three countries with the most 7-11 stores are the Thailand, the United States, and Japan, but not in that order.  What is the correct order?  Scroll down to find out.  

Finally, I spotted this sign while driving in the Silom-Surawongse area.  The Bangrak district government (districts being a subset of the larger city of Bangkok) has partnered with the ubiquitous 7-11 stores and you can now lodge comments and complaints directly at the 7-11 stores.  While the sign is unclear in both Thai and English, I would assume that the poor cashiers at 7-11 stores are only trained to handle complaints related to the civic governance of the district.  They will not be dispensing relationship advice, handling landlord-tennant conflicts, or doing the work that police through be doing.

As for the 7-11s themselves, there are approximately 13,000 stores in Japan, 8,200 stores in the United States, and 5,800 in Thailand.  One Thai friend recounted to us after his first trip to the US his surprise at discovering that there are 7-11s in the United States, too.  We didn't have the heart to tell him that 7-11 is not a Thai company.

Have a wonderful weekend.

The neighborhood I live in - Thong Lo - is part of the "middle Sukhumvit" area in Bangkok.  Located east of the old city and not too far from the Chao Phraya River, fifty years ago this area was considered to be really far out in the countryside.  Well-off families of merchants and civil servants bought pieces of land for their weekend homes along narrow sois (alleys) that led off larger streets that paralleled khlongs (canals).

Over time, their houses grew with additions for children and in-laws.  Trees grew, too, providing beautiful shade and cooler temperatures even as the city and all its ill effects - noise, pollution, pavement, and tall buildings - crept into the neighborhood.

Since there are no annual property taxes (although they are being discussed by the legislature), there is little incentive to sell unused property.  As these old homes were encroached upon by modernity, families often fled to other properties and some of the beautiful residences fell into disrepair.

Sometimes the family, or their descendants, will raze the old buildings and construct new ones.  That's happening next door to us as two older houses have been torn down, the adjacent properties have been combined, and a new house if being erected.  Of course, this required the removal of some of the beautiful (and tall) old trees because the sons of the owner didn't want leaves falling into their swimming pool.  Instead of leaves, they will get to be spied upon by half of my neighbors.

Many of the older houses are built in a "tropical deco" style and were designed with the environment in mind.  With wide overhangs and carefully oriented windows, natural ventilation kept the house comfortable most of the year and air conditioning was rarely necessary as the breezes and large trees worked in tandem to cool the house.

Not so much these newer homes, the designs of which are a mish-mash of styles, resembling nothing so much as a housing development in the suburbs of Los Angeles.  Take the above house which is being built on Sukhumvit Soi 10.  What is that deck-like structure elevated above the house?  It couldn't possibly be chimneys because why would anyone have fireplaces in Bangkok?

Sometimes the older houses, instead of being torn down, are turned to commercial uses either through lease or sale.  Just down the street from us, this beautiful three-story home (a bit hard to see in the background) is being transformed into a new branch of Curries and More, a Thai restaurant operated by the popular Baan Khanita group.  They are adding another building that is being built around the existing trees and it looks like the setting will be beautiful, complementing the style of the original house rather than competing with it.

Another example, just next door to our condo, is a house that was turned into Red, an upscale Indian restaurant.  While the people living adjacent to the restaurant don't appreciate some of the late-night celebrations held there, the owners have done a nice job using the original building.

Perhaps the nicest example is across the street and a few doors down from us, a company that designs and sells furniture including outdoor patio sets that are perfectly suited to the wide verandas featured in the house's design.

It is interesting to watch how the neighborhood changes.  What started out as weekend homes in the far suburbs has become condos, restaurants, shops, or just rebuilt homes in the vibrant heart of the city.  All a part of the unique character and charm of Bangkok.

While Andy was here last month, I edited and posted the first video in my "Great Eats in Bangkok" series.  Since then I've shot video for another three segments, but I'm finding myself frustrated with the audio quality.  My camera, a Panasonic Lumix LX-3, takes fantastic looking pictures and video and is especially good in low-light settings.  But like most cameras with video functions, the built-in speakers leave something to be desired.

Most of the great eats in Bangkok are located in noisy places - crowded restaurants, street-side stalls, busy markets - and my camera's microphone doesn't distinguish my voice from the ambient noise from the background.

Exploring my options, I found a relatively inexpensive solution.  What I did not want to do is buy a full digital video camera.  That would be too bulky and I'm not willing to leave my Lumix behind because most of my blog content is photos, not video.  After some research, I settled on a Kodak Zi8.

The Zi8 is a handheld high-definition video recorder, a simple point-and-shoot model along the lines of the Flip video camera.  It doesn't have a lot of functions - zoom, different shooting modes, etc. - but it does have one feature I was most looking for: an external microphone jack.  Which leads me to my next purchase:

A wireless lavalier microphone set from Azden.  This way I'll be able to mic myself so even in the midst of a crowded environment you should be able to hear my voice distinct from the background noise.  Funnily enough, the microphone set is about half again as expensive ($150 vs. $100) as the camera.  I was initially hesitant to spend that much money, but after talking it over with Tawn he encouraged me to make the purchase as an investment in my blogging.

My cousins in LA will be bringing my purchases to Hawai'i next week where I'll met them for another cousin's wedding.  Perhaps the first test of all this will be on some local Kaua'i grinds.  Stay tuned!

As the city grows, as business and tourism rebound after the political upheaval of the past few years, Bangkok's rail transit gets increasingly crowded.  Following the opening of a two-station extension, the first across the Chao Phraya River, the Skytrain recently put into service new four-car trains on the Silom line.  At the same time, they have ordered additional cars that should arrive in the next year or so to enlarge the existing three-car trains, all of which will be placed on the Sukhumvit line.

Riding on one of the new trains recently, I was surprised to look at the system map posted over the door and discover nine stations that I had never seen before.  In a fit of extreme advance planning, the maps show not only the five stations that are scheduled to open at the On Nut end of the Sukhumvit line in August 2011, but also the four stations that will be added beyond Wongwian Yai station, across the river, sometime in the later part of 2012.

Needless to say, the advance planning didn't include the "Future Stations" stickers, so for several weeks passengers were scratching their heads, wondering whether the new stations had surreptitiously opened.  The stickers have been added, though, so now everyone can admire all of the new stations they have to look forward to.

Along those lines, Tawn and I were on the northwestern outskirts of the city this past weekend visiting friends' new baby, and we came across two sections of new rail construction, one definitely the "Purple Line" and another that was a bit confusing.  It is either part of the Purple Line or else may be part of the Red Line, although I didn't realize they had started building it.

In any case, I'm excited to see that some significant signs of progress are being made in extending the mass transit infrastructure here in Bangkok.  It may take a few more years of pain, but the results should be well worth it.  All we need to do now is to integrate the buses routes into the rail system and we'll really have something going!

Sorry for a few days of no entries.  Last Wednesday and Thursday I was down in Singapore on a border run.  This is a technicality based on the type of work visa I have for Thailand.  If you want to know more, you can read this entry about it, which includes a funny video about a typical border run.

The visit was fun, including a dinner with Singaporean friends that I'll share pictures of soon along with a nice lunch with two Xangans, Monica (icepearlz) and Nick (beowulf222).  I've known Nick for a few years independent of Xanga and it is always nice to see him again.  This was the first time I've met Monica.  I know many of you read her accounts of life (and motherhood) in Singapore, and let me assure you that she's every bit as nice in person as she is on her blog.

While waiting in the lobby of my condo I noticed this butterfly perched on a beam near the ceiling.  Was able to get quite close for the shot, although lighting wasn't ideal.  Beautiful creature, isn't it?

Upon returning to Bangkok, I was engulfed by the news of the earthquake in Japan as I'm sure many of you were.  Instead of sitting down to blog, I was turning my attention to reports from that nation and my thoughts to the many friends Tawn and I have there.  Thankfully, they are all well and suffered no damage other than the emotional discomfort one would expect from such an experience.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and experienced countless quakes, including the Loma Prieta quake in 1989.  While not as severe as this recent quake in Japan, I can sympathize with the feeling of utter helplessness as the ground shifts beneath your feet.

In the next day or two I'll resume regular blogging, writing about food, cooking, and observations about life in Bangkok.  But for today I'll just leave it at this.

I read an interesting NY Times article yesterday about the efforts by Senators Mark Warner of Virginia and Saxy Chambliss of Georgia to create a bipartisan conversation about the nation's budget deficit.  This as Congress makes a grand show of nipping at the budget's heels by cutting things like Head Start early education for children.

While I may be a cock-eyed optimist and a tad naive, I think most Americans can handle straight talk.  They are willing to make sacrifices if things are explained to them clearly and without a lot of added fright.  I'd like my Senators to join in this bipartisan approach, so took the time to send them the following email:

Dear Senator:

I'd like to encourage you to join with Senators Chambliss and Warner in their effort to hold an honest, bipartisan dialogue about our national deficit. 

The current talk in Congress focuses on cutting discretionary spending, which only makes up 12% of our budget.  Much of it goes to important programs, but even if we cut it all, we still would have a long way to go to fix the deficit.

I'd like you to be a part of an honest discussion that acknowledges that cuts in spending will have to include defense, healthcare, and social security costs.  I'd also like you to acknowledge that revenue increases will also be a necessary part of the solution.

Please stop playing politics with our nation's future.  Join Senators Chambliss and Warner and others who will rise above politics and find a bipartisan solution to repair our nation's finances.

Thank you.

That's the action I'm taking.  What action will you take?  How do you think the deficit should be approached? 

In other news, I'm heading out this morning on an overnight border run to Singapore (previous entry).  Figured that the flight is the same price if I stay overnight, I'll have time for dinner with friends, and I don't have to get up so early to catch my flight.  Except that I went to bed early and managed to have the garbage collectors wake me up at 4:30 as they rattled the bins on the street.  Thankfully, this trip will include lunch at Din Tai Fung with two other Xangans.

Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day.  It is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate women worldwide and to remind ourselves of the work yet to be done to fight gender inequality.  But it is sad that we need a special day for this.  With two young nieces growing up, my hope is that by the time they become adults, they will know no hint of inequality or discrimination.