it takes a village (part 2)

Someone I met a few months ago as a potential business client is taking a medical leave of absence for a few months to de-stress. She came to Vietnam a number of years ago as an expat wife. Her husband's company put them in a large house with a staff of 10, more than what an elderly couple would need. While other expat wives were busy playing mahjong, luncheoning and gossiping with each other, she decided to call a meeting of her household staff to talk about goals and dreams.

One of her housekeepers responded that she is not qualified to have a goal. She did not finish high school because she had to take care of her parents and siblings as the oldest daughter. The expats eventually decided to downsize their abode and have subsequently retired. However, she is now the CEO of a not-for-profit organization and owner of an interior design and furniture store that is managed by the ex-housekeeper who thought that she could not amount to more than a housekeeper and is now functioning as the president of the store, which has never had an unprofitable year. She is the first person in her family to have purchased a house.

The gardener ended up owning his own landscaping business with a little bit of seed money. He eventually sold the business for a profit and moved onto other ventures. The driver now works as the communications and business development manager of the not-for-profit organization as it turns out that he has a knack for building relationships and chatting it up with random individuals (a skill set he developed during all the idle time waiting with the car). Here's to her quick recovery and a reminder that we all should dare to dream...

the road less traveled

I finally decided to do the touristy things during my latest trip to Bangkok. I'm usually not a huge fan of typical tourist attractions, especially after going to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, which probably still ranks in the top 10, possibly numero uno, of the biggest disappointments. I can now check off blessings from the Emerald Buddha (who is really made of jade) at the Grand Palace, a long tailboat ride at the Damnoen Saduak floating market, and a bare-back elephant ride.

But when a friend invited me to go on a random neighborhood walkabout in the shanty town near Phra Pin-klao and Rama VIII bridges, I was totally game. He explained that he got lost a few years ago and ended up in the area, making a mental note to come back and explore. We had no map and no clue what we would discover. It was a great afternoon of discoveries and meeting such friendly people who were happy to share their lives and feed our curiosities.

A few things we learned:

• Monks get cremated, and the cremation chamber has a number of wide doors that are opened for the soul to fly.
• Bhuddists believe that there are 65 heavens (six worlds of desires with 60 levels in the sixth world).
• Only 2.7 million of the 65 million people in Thailand pay taxes since it is mostly a cash-based, sole proprietorship society (similar to Vietnam).
• Although it is more developed with a huge reliance on the tourism industry, less people speak English in Bangkok than in Saigon.
• Similarly, there is also less free wifi.
• Wind blows in the opposite direction of the direction of the rainclouds.
• Thailand is probably the only country where the entire country is predominantly one religion - so cultural and religious beliefs are difficult to distinguish one from the other.
• The society views raising children as a group effort rather than individual parent(s)' effort.

We ended up getting lost trying to find a restaurant that he somehow remembered he wanted to try. Although we ended up a different place, it had a live local band, riverfront views, and with only one other foreigner there. The night ended with a nightcap at Khao San road, another touristy spot, but at that point, I stopped noticing.

another lifetime

When I went to New York for college, there were many occasions during that four-year period where I was in constant awe and development of my life experiences after having grown up in small town America in an immigrant family. As I got older, those moments have lessen as I got used to the lifestyle and experiences of 'keeping up with the Joneses'. Part of the appeal to relocate across the world was to recapture some of the excitement of new learnings and experiences.

My first trip to Hong Kong has now set a high bar. Upon our arrival, we were whisked to a beach on a remote island that can only be accessed by private boat. It was a catered, theme party for someone's 30th birthday. Au d'oeuvres and champagne were brought to us while we were frolicking in the ocean. Warm water, beautiful weather and good friends - a formula for great fun that ended with dancing on the top deck of a boat surrounded by fresh ocean breeze and scent under a cloudless sky filled with stars and moonlight.

Just when I thought the surreal moment was the highlight of the weekend, we ended up at another part of the remote island on Sunday finding snails, exploring caves, and drinking and chatting it up on a millionaire's speedster. Lunch at Jaspas Beach Club that can also only be accessed by boat was full of laughs and casualness. We all had a hard time leaving to catch our flight that evening, and for once, I was hoping to miss my flight. More importantly, I met new friends from all walks of life (from farmers to entrepreuners) that appear to just enjoy life and tell it like it is - something I find I miss a lot living in a very passive-aggressive country like Vietnam. They reminded me of my friends in New York, and while I'm not entirely sure whether it is the metropolitan city that shapes people or whether people like that gravitates to such cities, I just know it was a breath of fresh air for me.

Of course, I didn't realize how unconventional my weekend was as a 'day in the life' of a Hong Kong tourist until I got back to the realities of everyday life and was told that Hong Kong does not have any nice beaches so I could not have spent a weekend in Hong Kong. Looking back, it was definitely one of those 'who would have thunk?' moments. Here's to more of where that came from!! Cheers!

color me confused

While many currencies in Asia are linked to the US dollar, each country has its own currency although I wish they would learn from the benefits of the Euro...ok on second thought, maybe not, given the economic situation in Europe. I used to have a mug with random coins from my travels since they usually wouldn't convert the coins back to the US dollar. Of course, I would always forget that I had them when I went back to the respective countries - I have loonies galore.

I have stopped converting now since I plan on making numerous trips back and forth during my stint in Asia. My travels though have not taught me to be any more efficient in discerning the notes and coins. Even in Vietnam, there are times where I catch myself giving the wrong currency since the colors of the notes are similar (VND 500,000 is a similar blue as VND 20,000) - a very few honest individuals have given me the notes back. There are so many colors that it baffles me why we cannot have a note in purple, for example.

To add to the confusion, Hong Kong is one of those rare countries where they do not have just the central bank printing the notes. Certain coins/notes are minted/printed by not only the central bank but also three approved banks with their own branding. At first blush, I thought people were giving me counterfeit bills as change - one of those 'take advantage of the stupid tourist' scenarios. Even after understanding the system though, I'm still convinced that there is a component of 'stupid tourist' traps, especially when it involves imbibing Absolut and Jack!

third time's the charm

My dad is MacGyver. We would have appliances dating back to the 1970s because he kept fixing them until we would have enough of the 'old farts' that we would force him to stop. Naturally, I inherited some of his mechanical mind and usually am not gadget/electronics challenged, and can hook up any complicated entertainment system. However, I was at a loss this weekend when I couldn't figure out the rice cooker, microwave or oven in my apartment.

Given the diversity and mass production in the Asian markets, gadgets/appliances usually have symbols rather than words. The user manuals seem to cover a number of different models in one booklet, and it usually isn't clear what model I have in the apartment. There are a number of options on my washer and dryer but I've been happy to just figure out the basics to avoid shrinking or coloring my clothes. We had three people look at the manual for the oven just to turn it on. We ended up having my friend call her friend who coincidentally is my neighbor to walk her through it. It doesn't seem so self explanatory that one has to push the timer and heat buttons at the same time to turn it on.

After baking the chocolate cake twice, we could not figure out why it would only cook the top. Luckily my friend is married to a MacGyver also. While he couldn't explain to us what he did, he somehow managed to solve our dilemma. After scraping off the burnt top, the chocolate cake was well worth the wait.