Big Adventure - Part 10

Well, I see that I have been here for just about 10 weeks and this is the tenth edition of my ramblings. Hey, maybe I could call this a weekly column and “publish” it on a regular schedule?

I worked this weekend (yes, I thought that I was moving away from that) – my first really big new client all my own – 2 mill for the land then several large apartment complexes – here we go. As a result of being so exhausted from working on my weekend, I’m writing this and finishing reading my book today (Monday).

Work continues next door – of course. Four guys are out in my parking lot squatting down cutting lumber with hand saws. I should tell them about sawhorses and power saws. On the weekend they were out there cutting 8 x 8 teak posts to length with the same hand saws. That took a while.

I find myself saying things like “David go Tesco” and “many traffic” in daily conversation. If this continues no one will understand me when I come there, eh?

Well, I got some wonderful news this morning – Jacquie is booked !!! The plan is hopefully coming together. I light at the end of the long dark tunnel of loneliness. Assuming the plan holds (that is that the arrangements for the dog to fly on the same flight can be finalized and confirmed) she will arrive in Bangkok on Oct. 13. Oh happy day.

I don’t know if you get any news about Asia over there unless it’s about a disaster, but Bangkok’s brand new state of the art airport opens on Sept. 28th. Suvarnabhumi International. Apparently the largest single terminal airport in the world, it is located on an 8,000 acre site 40 minutes from downtown. The main passenger terminal building is just shy of 6 million square feet – the duty free stores are all together in a mall that is one kilometer long. The train system being built to serve it won’t be finished until next year or the year after that, but in the meantime 10,000 taxis will serve it. There is of course a hotel, but also a movie theatre and bowling alley. It will handle 100 million passengers a year, and they can handle 9,600 pieces of luggage AN HOUR.!!

So two weeks after it opens Jacquie and Sam arrive there by plane and I must find it by car. I just realized that I’ve never driven anywhere in Thailand off of this island (except the odd day with a rented motorbike on some other islands) and I can’t get too lost here – it’s an island. Now I’m going to take a 10 +++ hour drive to a brand new airport the size of a town, on the far side of Bangkok – a city with 12 million people and about the same number of cars and motorbikes.

I think I should leave tomorrow, to give myself time to find it.

It’s tomorrow, I didn’t leave but I did spend some time finding maps, etc. and sorting out the route to and from Bangkok. There is one key road right in the city I can’t find a route number for, but otherwise it looks doable. All freeways all the way, barring any wrong turns. I might go a day early just to be safe.

Today the yard guys came to mow, etc. I couldn’t go get coffee because rocks from the whipper snipper guy were dinging off of my glass door the whole time. Three guys were here for about 2 hours and charged about $24. For here that is a lot of money. I assume if a window shatters from being hit with rocks they’ll go good for it.

The changes next door are progressing. They will include a small patio under the pergola outside our living room with a table and chairs. They have just started laying beautiful terracotta tiles there. Very inviting – a nice spot for morning coffee or a cool drink in the evening. She says it still should be all finished and ready for me by the end of the month – at worst I should at least be moved in before my wife arrives.

Well. Add to the list of things I should not take for granted a stable democracy and a constitution. As you all know, there was a successful coup by the army yesterday, while the “caretaker Prime Minister” was in New York speaking at the UN (he has cancelled his speech and is flying back I think). It appears the coup was led by General Sondhi Boonyaratkalin, although he was clearly not acting alone.

The coup was conducted in true Thai style – no violence and the army has apologized to the people for the inconvenience caused by them seizing power. A kinder, gentler coup. Television and radio were taken over as well but today are back on the air reporting both sides of the situation. Here on Samui we are a long way from Bangkok. No tanks in the streets (a tank and a car couldn’t pass on these roads). The only signs of the coup are the media reports and the fact that school has been cancelled country wide. When I was in school we had storm days, but I never, not even once, got to stay home because of a coup day.

The new regime is calling itself the Council of Administrative Reform. So apparently the CAR is being driven by General Boonyaratkalin.

General Boonyaratkalin has said that he will act as Prime Minister for two weeks until a new leader “who is neutral and upholds democracy” can be found. Nice to see that the leader of the armed coup that overthrew the democratically elected government so strongly believes in democracy.

We have no constitution now. Interesting to contemplate the potential of that.

The biggest concern is the impact all of this will have on the economy. Already today the Baht his hit a four year low – great for tourists coming here but not so hot for lawyers who moved here to work and are being paid in Thai Baht (and who want to spend Thai Baht to travel to other countries – maybe we’ll limit our travels in the short term to countries where the government has been recently overthrown by a military junta).

On the plus side, I have learned the correct spelling of coup d’état. And I’ve got a new nickname, being like the new sheriff in town – “Marshall Law” (all of you can call me Marshall.

Even the news channels have picked it up – they’re all saying “Marshall Law is in Thailand”. How cool is that?

10:30 at night and the plumbers just arrived. It doesn’t really sound like they are working. It sounds more like they are having a tailgate party in the parking lot below my balcony. I hope they get whatever it is that’s broken fixed by my bedtime.

The next day.

No, they didn’t. Now we have no water again. Apparently it went dry last night and Ju called those plumbers. They say now that the well is dry. I’ve suggested that she arrange to buy water to fill the cisterns on the roof. Almost makes me look forward to the rainy season.

Afternoon, and the water vendor has arrived. I assume that we are buying what comes off of the truck – so we are paying for the 50 or so gallons running across the driveway from the leaky hose.

Today I went to Tesco for soda water and the computer store for a new monitor. At Tesco I saw a woman in her 80s with tattoos, orange hair, and a tube top. On the drive back from the computer store I saw a big, big woman on the songtaew (pickup truck taxi with a roof) in front of me change her clothes. I’m not sure if that was a bikini or underwear – I’ll let you know which it looks like in the nightmares (she’ll probably have orange hair and tattoos).

We are now 2 days post coup, and it is now being touted as “The Peoples Coup”. As one description put it,

“The feeling here is similar to how it feels when you finally pull a
splinter out that has been hurting for so long.......still a little
raw....but what a relief..... “

A poll today shows an 87% approval rating for the military. Wow.

Saturday morning, and on page 2 of the paper there is a story explaining that astrologers and fortune tellers are saying that the future looks bright for the country now, because of the coup. I wonder who has editorial control over at the newspaper.

Well, when we decided to move here, we at no time considered that we might be moving to a military state. But now I’m here and living it and I guess nothing is really different. I will feel even better when the former Prime Minister’s children – who haven’t been seen since Wednesday - resurface safe and sound.

And I’ll feel better still when I am complete again on October 13.

David happy. Soon.