#43 What’s that burning smell? May 2010

We had only arrived back a few days and our first drama.  We used this extension cord for our washing machine.  I didn’t realise that you had to have an appropriately thick cable for something that draws a lot of power like a washing machine.  Fortunately, I was around when I smelled the burning wires and prevented our laundry from going up in smoke.  The things that you never think of when you live in Australia.  Most electrical sockets in Thailand are not “earthed” so I still get a shock whenever I touch my desktop computer.

Lazada - The Amazon of Thailand

 

People outside of Asia would probably never have heard of it, but Lazada is the Amazon of Thailand.  You can buy almost everything on it (apart from a car or house) and it is generally much cheaper than buying the same item in the shops.  We've bought everything from laptops, freezers, a kids pool, to mouth wash.  I would say that we have a Lazada delivery at least once a week and in some weeks 3-4 days in that week.  This week, my son ordered a hammock and my other son vitamins.  

Before my wife left to return to Australia, she made some Lazada orders knowing that she probably couldn't get the same items so cheaply there. 

Chaff Sculptures @ Huay Tueng Tao Lake, Chiang Mai

 

These sculptures were made from the chaff of rice fields at Huay Teung Tao Lake in Chiang Mai.  They were amazing.  

Grab Food

Grab food delivery

One business that has benefited from Covid-19 is food delivery.  Grab Food and Food Panda are the two largest companies offering food delivery services.  We used it quite a lot when the restaurants were only allow to offer takeaway. We are not using it much now that the restaurants are open for dine in.  Apparently, Grab Food take a 30% cut so it is not cheap for the restaurant, though they would mark up their prices.  The delivery fee charged is based on the distance and for short distances it is as cheap at 10-15THB (less than A$1).  

Air Quality

The new and old air purifier filter

While my home town of Sydney discovers what air purifiers are from the savage bushfires, here in Chiang Mai I am well acquainted with them have 5 units in our house since last year.  Unfortunately, this year the air quality has worsened earlier in the year than in previous years.  This year we have had "red" PM2.5 reading in January already, whereas in previous years it has been at least February before the air pollution worsened.  Last year, I was caught out in not buying replacement filters quickly enough, so this year I've bought them early.

There was presentation by one of Chiang Mai's leading Paediatric Pulmonologists at our children's school recently about the air pollution in Chiang Mai.  I wasn't able to make it, but apparently some (or a lot?) Chiang Mai's air pollution is caused by the biggest poultry company in Thailand, which has been planting fields of corn to feed its pigs.  The feed burning practices for the supply of this animal grade corn is what is causing the air pollution.

The Thai people I have spoken see to agree with this view and they don't think much of the owner of this company.

I do hope there is an improvement of the air quality in Chiang Mai in the future as it seems to be worsening each year and impacting life here more and more.

Termites

I was walking at the front of our house when I saw part of the ceiling on the floor.  When I looked up it was clear what the cause was.  TERMITES!  Pest control were called in and we signed up for a monthly plan for the next year.  The landlord organised the repairs and they used aluminium instead of wood.  I was surprised how much of the ceiling that the termites had eaten through!

Church Christmas Event 2018

Church Christmas Event

Last Sunday the Thai Church I'm currently attending had a Christmas service.  I was amazed that the church was  packed out and it was difficult to find a seat.  I would say that there were at least 400 people when there is normally under 100.  The church provided lunch for everyone as well.

I do hope that the true Christmas message and the meaning of Jesus coming was heard. 

This year's Immigration Experience

Line outside immigration early in the morning

One of the cultural experiences of living in Thailand is renewing your visa.  The process is different depending on where you are in Thailand.  Our personal experience has been in Bangkok and now in Chiang Mai, the two biggest immigration departments.  In Chiang Mai, the student, teacher, education, religious and elite card visas are put in one group with Retirement and medical in another group. 

Unfortunately, the students make up the biggest group and we are in that group as our visa falls under religious.  This means that our line is the longest.  The immigration department only processes a certain number of visas per day and if the queue is too long, then you have to come and line up again the next day.  So, if you want to be certain that you will be seen that day then you need to line up very early. 

How early is the uncertainty.  You just never know who will turn up on any given day.  If you are unlucky, you could have 30 students from one institution turn up just before you.  That could mean at least 2-3 hours extra wait or could mean missing out on a ticket for that day.  Some people have been known to line up the night before at 11pm which is at least an 8 hour wait as they start handing out the tickets at around 7am. 

Last week a colleague went in and lined up at 4am in the morning.  He was given ticket number 66 and was seen at 3:30pm and arrived back home at 5pm.  I set the alarm for 3:30am, but my body clock woke me up at 3am so I left home by 3:15am and was there by 3:40am. 

I saw a long line people on the sidewalk outside of immigration and wondered what they were doing.  Normally people would line up in the carpark inside the immigration complex.  When I went past them and tried to turn into the immigration carpark the gates were shut and I couldn’t get in.  So I kept on going and did a U turn and parked at the petrol station opposite immigration.  I realised then that the line was on the sidewalk because they gate were still shut.  So I joined the line and there would have been over 70 people in front of me.

Last year they only gave out 60 tickets or so per day so I was a bit concerned.  This was the earliest I’d ever gone in yet, this was furthest back I’ve been in the queue.  Later on I overheard that they would process a 100 tickets per day so that was a little reassuring. 

A Korean family with 3 kids lined up behind me at around 4pm.  I wondered why the mother would bring the kids with her as she could just get the tickets for them.  Eventually, we started talking and as her husband was still working in Korea she didn’t have anyone to look after the children so they had to come with her.   The unbelievable thing was that when I asked them where they lived, they actually live in our street!  We had never seen them before in the year we have been living in our house and they had never seen us.

At around 6am or so the gates were opened and we were allowed into the immigration carpark where we lined up in different groups assigned.  By 7am they were handing out tickets and our ticket numbers were from 80 onwards.  There were probably around another 30 people behind me and they all received tickets.  So, no one missed out today.  I probably could still have come as late as 6:30am and received tickets.  But you just never know.  Maybe next year I’ll risk going in at this late a time and seeing what happens. 

The new aspect of the process this year is the additional the “Happy Queue” system.  On your ticket you have a QR code which you can use the Happy Queue app to scan.  Then the app gives you the number of tickets remaining ahead of you and the prediction of when it will be your turn to be seen.   This is a fantastic because I could safely go home after collecting my tickets for my family and return later in the day. 

As I write this blog piece it is 10:53am and there are still 19 tickets remaining before us.  The prediction is for 12:27pm.  I know that the lunch break is between 12:00-1pm.  So it looks like that we will be seen after 1:30pm at least.  I suspect that it will be later than that.  Our friend’s predication last week was for 2:30pm but he wasn’t seen until 3:30pm.  I just hope we are finished by 4:30pm (the official closing time) as our son has his piano lesson at 5:15pm.

Although some people complain about the system and having to wait on the streets in the early hours of the morning etc, if we all get our visas renewed and are allowed to stay in Thailand for another year, I won’t be complaining.  This is just how things are done here and the sooner you accept it, the happier you will be.

Songkran in Chiang Mai

The Songkran water festival is probably the most famous festival in Thailand, though I hear that it occurs in Burma as well.  I won't go into the meaning and significance here, but for a few days in the middle of April each year, it become very dangerous to go out on your motorbike past mid morning, especially anywhere near the centre of town.  You are almost certain to be hit by a bucket or stream of icy water.   It is a time to let your hair down and do what Thais love to do - have fun.  

We have never celebrated Songkran in Chiang Mai before so I borrowed one of the utes from office and piled our kids and invited another family to join us in going out and joining the biggest water fight on earth.   We filled up 3 tubs of water and water guns and headed out towards the moat, in the middle of the city.   We thought that it would be busy but it was much more than we had imagined and we crawled through the streets for almost two hours before the we had all had enough.  I didn't know that there were so many foreign tourists in Chiang Mai, hundreds and hundreds lining the street where this photo was taken.

The Christians in Burma I was told by the family we had invited, don't really celebrate the Songkran water festival in fear that it might be participating in a non-Christian festival.  I don't think it is the case in Thailand but it is something to ask a Thai Christian.  

One the tragedies of Songkran though is that there is much drinking and driving.  378 deaths and 3575 injuries this year according to one news outlet.  They are mostly motorbike related.  

We had hoped to celebrate Songkran with a Thai family but it didn't happen this year.  Maybe next year when we hopefully know more people.

Trip to the Emergency Department

We were just telling the OMF Medical Adviser last week that our family has been in pretty good health for the last 4 years.  We hadn’t been to a Thai hospital for an emergency since our second son fell from the tree house in Lampang about 2 metres onto concrete, knocking himself unconscious. We still think it is a miracle that he didn’t suffering any brain damage from that fall.

Then a couple of nights ago, our youngest son was sliding down the stair railing when he slipped and fell from the second floor stairs to the bottom of stairs, head first opening up a deep and nasty gash on his forehead which needed a trip to emergency.  Again, we are thankful to God for sparing us a major head or neck injury.

In Chiang Mai there are a numerous hospital options, especially for those who can speak Thai (like us).  For those who can’t speak Thai, the two main options are Chiang Mai RAM and Bangkok Hospitals.  They cater for foreigners and are the quickest to get seen but they are the most expensive hospitals.We ended up going to one of the these two hospitals (I won’t say which one), because it was the closest hospital to us and it was peak hour traffic so we didn’t want to be stuck in traffic.

We weren’t impressed on entering the emergency department as there was no one in the reception area.  It was a few minutes before we could get the attention of some of the staff inside the door of the treatment area so that we could get our son seen.  After my wife carried my son into the treatment area led on by a nurse, I went back to my car which was idling outside the doors of the emergency department to find a parking spot.  When I returned to emergency, again there was no one at the emergency reception area so I just walked into the treatment area.  I was surprised that the doors just opened and I could just walk in start searching the cubicles to try to find my wife and son.  You wouldn’t see that in any major hospital in Australia. 

Generally, we received excellent care in the hospital.  We were seen by the nurse initially and then the emergency doctor within 15 minutes or so.  We waited another 15 or so minutes before a surgeon came and started to suture my son’s head wound.  All up we were there for an hour and half or so. What I wasn’t impressed with though was the emergency doctor recommending that our son get a head CT.  Initially we agreed, but I started having doubts almost immediately.  Having been a physio and worked in a hospital for a year, I thought that it was a bit over the top recommend a CT when there were no neurological signs and he didn’t lose consciousness when he had the accident. He wasn’t even complaining of that much of a headache and was pretty normal apart from the deep cut on his head.

I rang the OMF medical adviser and asked for his advice whether a head CT was necessary in this case.  He agreed that if there was no neurological symptoms such as vomiting or decreased consciousness that a CT was not warranted.  That was all I needed and I told the nurse that we didn’t want a head CT anymore.  She had a sign a waiver stating that we declined the medical advice to get a CT.

Another issue was the doctor prescribing antibiotics.  It was a pretty clean wound and I doubted whether my son needed antibiotics.  So I consulted with the OMF medical adviser and he confirmed that no antibiotics were needed.  By that stage the medical bill had already been printed and the hospital pharmacist had put stickers with my son’s name on the antibiotics so I couldn’t really cancel them.  

It is pretty common to order test and give medicines that you don’t necessarily need in these hospital catering for foreigners.  We’ve experienced it many times before but I was surprised especially about the CT as they aren’t cheap even in Thailand.  

We were given appointment cards to come to the emergency department to have the bandages changed everyday and also see the surgeon for a followup appointment and appointment to remove the stitches.  We haven’t gone to these apart from the final appointment which we will go to to get the stitches removed.  I figured that I could change the bandages without too much trouble and save the extra fee from the hospital.  

The total bill was over 8,000 Baht (AU$320).  Not too expensive if you had the same procedure done in Australia but almost half our monthly rent in Thailand so it was pretty steep.  

A Very Different Neighbourhood Reception

Our house warming party

I have been surprised by the difference in the reception we have received by our Thai neighbours between our old neighborhood and our new one.  In our previous neighbourhood we weren’t able to really get to know any of our Thai neighbours at all.  We tried to great them whenever we saw them but apart from a polite greeting, they did not really want to engage with us at all.  However, in our new neighbourhood, our Thai neighbours have been much more friendly and we know more about them in our first month of living here than we did in 8 months of living in our previous home.

What could explain the difference in reception.  Perhaps one reason could be that in our previous neighbourhood we lived in there was a large number of missionaries or expats renting and in our small street, half the house would have been missionaries or expats.  Due to the transitory nature of the work missionaries and expats are involved in, there is a lot of moving in and out of these houses.  The Thai neighbours who live there may have experience this and are not willing to engage with the foreigners who they know will not stay long term.  That is understandable.

In our new neighbourhood we don’t have any missionary or expat families living in our surround streets (except for one man with a Thai wife).  The family who had lived in our house had been in it for 10 years.  So they are have not experienced the same amount of change in foreign families moving in and out.

Also, we made the effort to have a house warming party and personally go and invite all our neighbours.  Although only 3 households actually came and stayed at the house warming party, many came with gifts and an apology of not being able to make it. 

So although being close to so many other missionary families had it benefits in terms of friendship for our kids, it had a detrimental effect on our relationship with our Thai neighbours.  We feel so much more connected in our new neighbourhood and look forward to getting to develop our relationship with our neighbours.