Rainy Season

Finally it has started to rain again. Since July we should have had regular rains but most of the last couple of weeks was pretty dry and very hot and humid. Temperatures climed up to levels known otherwise only during the hot season. Not so yesterday. It seemed the sky had opened and all the water you can imagine poured down. We were having nice Indian dinner with a couple of friends when the rain started. Not thinking much we enjoyed lovely indian naan, dal and raita and had a good chat. Once we wanted to leave we had to realize the roads around the restaurant were all flooded. We felt like on an island surrounded by 30 cm deep brackish water (ironically enough next to the tallest building in Thailand). Thanks to the dirt of the water we could not see anything and wading through would have been too dangerous - where was the sewage canal again, the whole in the street...? Somehow we managed to take some detours and reached a spot where we could waive down a Taxi without being splashed on entirely. And yes our feet were still reasonably dry!!! Floods usually mean Taxi prices skyrocket and the bargaining is more like an auction where the highest bidder gets the Taxi. But luck was with us and we found a empty Taxi willing to take us.
We managed to climb into the Taxi with dry shoes just to realise too late that the Taxi was full of water as well!!! Thus all the effort of keeping dry shoes was useless as we had wet shoes (and feet) anyway. Well, that is one of the moments one remembers that Thailand is still developing.

Thorsten & Griet

bussy bussy bussy

It's no excuse, we know, but it's true. It's amazing how, when you're not working, you've got too much time and once you're bussy, there's no time at all...
Anyway.

July already! Time's flying. I have now officially been going to University for a month and I'm still enjoying it. Yes, there are lectures which don't seem to make any sense and we've got professors who don't know how to transfer their knowledge, but I guess that's nothing new.

We had an international day a couple of weeks ago and guess what... I was nominated for Miss International Day... Everyone was (supposed to be) dressed in his/her national or traditional outfit and as I haven't got one from Belgium, I decided to go Asian.

I had a Karen shirt (Karen is a local tribe in Myanmar) and a Laotian skirt. Obviously it did attract some attention.


Last month, we had some great celebrations in Thailand. King Rama IX (or King Bumibol) as reigned for 60 years and is the longest reigning king in the world. Reason enough to celebrate the Thai people decided. And celebrating they did!
There was lots of firework, nicely lit streets (it looked like Christmas!), activities happening around the Grand Palace, but the one thing everyone was waiting for, were the Royal Barges on the Chao Phraya river.

Because it would have been impossible to get close enough to the river, we went to watch the barges on a big screen.
Which gave us a much nicer and more detailed view than if we would have been at the river we found out later...

Because the king was born on a yellow day, yellow is an auspiscious colour (and the King's colour). So everyone was wearing yellow T-shirts.

So far, Thorsten and I have been able to resist the pressure to get a yellow T-shirt. It does have a bit of a negative taste aswell because now, every civil servant is expected (doesn't have to but...) to wear their yellow T-shirts to work on Mondays and Fridays to show they love the King. If they don't do it, they often get looked at 'you don't love our king?'.

But the best thing about the celebrations of the King were the empty streets!!!

It was so nice to be able to get around easily and fast.
The junction you see here is one of the bussiest junctions in Bangkok (with the skytrain running over it) and because of all the royalties from other countries they had closed major roads in Bangkok. You have to imagine this road is usually packed, absolutely packed with cars, busses, motorbikes and tuk tuk's.
It was quite a sight!



And other than this, nothing much as happened really. Except for the World Cup obviously and this is also being celebrated immensly in Thailand. Unfortunately not always for the best reasons... Betting is very big in Thailand and the World Cup is the opportunity to win (or loose) a lot of money.

That'll be it for today. Please keep writing and keep in touch!

Griet and Thorsten

Welcome to our Blog!

Dear Family and Friends! Welcome to our Blog!
Well, we are not sure how you will like the idea that we will post our experiences and stories on a blog format now, but we both had to realize it is difficult to keep up with you all on a regular basis via phone, letter or email as often we are out, travelling or simply do not feel in the mood to sit in front of a computer again (as we do most of the week for work or study).
Actually we feel this idea with a blog is fabulous as we now can share pictures, happenings and news with you all via the blog. Please enjoy the blog and let us know what you think!

Have a good time and cheers,

Griet and Thorsten