I am in the middle of a busy patch of workshops and lectures at the moment, but before that we went to Thailand for an extended weekend. The visit was facilitated by Harold Furr, ex of UConn and soon to be ex of Mahidol University just outside Bangkok, where he has been working at their Institute of Nutrition. I gave a talk on zinc to the faculty and grad students there. I don't think he is looking for a job, but if you ever want a tour guide, Harold did a wonderful job of welcoming us and laying out options for various things that we might do.

We flew to Bangkok on Sri Lanka Air - we had not heard of it either but I discovered a wonderful package including 4 nights hotel for about $250 each. The flights were fine, as were the hotels. It may a little tricky getting used to flying in the US again. The flight to Bangkok was a little over 2 hours but we got a full meal and I even ate most of it.

Within about 3 hours of landing in Bangkok, we were all having massages. It is an omnipresent cottage industry. There must have been 30 different places within 5 minutes walk of our hotel. I started out with a Thai massage. I was dressed in pajamas, lying on back and front and the massage therapist came at me using all parts of her body to gain mechanical advantage. So lots of elbows and forearms in addition to hands and she was quite happy to sit on me or alongside me - whatever made sense for the kind of manipulation. Sometimes a little intense but basically very good. Other nights I had a foot massage. A little more relaxing and less full contact, focusing below the knees, but then including the arms and hands, shoulders and head at the end. We ended up going back to the same place almost every night. Either kind of massage cost 200 baht, which is a little more than US$6. The one night we did not go there was because Duncan and Elizabeth decided to get adventurous and went for the fish nibbling feet massage. You put your feet in a fish tank for 15 minutes and the little critters nibble off your dead skin. It sounded altogether too ticklish to me so I did not try it.

Bangkok is a big city but totally different from Hong Kong. It has space to grow out and so it has not needed to grow up. It has relatively few tall buildings, but getting around can be tricky, given the distances involved. There are two skytrain lines and also a couple of subway lines, but their coverage is limited. Most people have to use the streets and so they are very congested. Taxis are good and cheap and brightly colored. We were delighted to ride in from the airport in a bright pink taxi.

Bright colors are a continuing theme, particularly evident in the temples. I think they take their Buddhism fairly seriously in Thailand, or at least as seriously as they take anything. It is apparently somewhat different from the Chinese Taoist/Confucian variety and incorporates more Hindu elements. In fact, in addition to the innumerable buddhas, there were many god statues, some complete with multiple limbs, trunks, etc. One day we went on a tour to Ayutthaya, the old capital. Our guide was very good and he pointed out three different ordination ceremonies where people were becoming monks. Apparently most men in Thailand become a monk for a while one of more times in their lives. Ayutthaya was an amazing ruin on an impressive scale. Early European travelers there described it as far in advance of London or Paris. Unfortunately, a Burmese invasion put paid to it and the capital was reestablished in Bangkok.

Another thing that interested me about Thailand was how unashamedly monarchist they appeared to be. The king is referred to as His Majesty, with big portraits everywhere. There were many parallels with my home country. Both have very long serving monarchs in their 80s, who have been on the throne for almost 60 years. Both have crown princes, with significantly less popularity. Both are really just figureheads, with real political power resting elsewhere. It seemed to me that the Thai king is more genuinely popular and probably better connected to his people. A little more active and involved and less aloof.

Things were disturbed politically while we were there by the decision from the Supreme Court to confiscate a large part of the resources of the ex-premier, Thaksin, who was deposed by the military, I think 3 years ago. Military coups are a bad idea, but this court case seemed pretty clear as he was making billions from the telecommunications industry while he was prime minister. Despite his corruption he remains very popular with the rural people and so they, the so-called redshirts, are protesting and demonstrating and demanding that the government step down. Apparently, their party has won every election in recent memory. Fortunately for us, they took a few days to get organized and so it is happening now rather than when we were there.

It would seem almost sinful to not say something about the food and the markets, since they are such important and enjoyable features. But I think I have written long enough, so if you want to know more, drop me an email and ask.

There are lots of differences between Hong Kong and the United States (or England, although there are a few more similarities with the ex-colonial power). This unsurprising thought came to me this evening as I was cooking dinner and tipped a collection of cut up chicken pieces, bought wrapped in plastic at our local supermarket, into the pan. The expected wing and breast and leg were there, but then so was a chicken foot. And a "parson's nose", which is essentially the chicken butt. I cooked it all up happily, although Jacob commented that the actual meat was rather sparse. But then he was a little prejudiced because (another difference) he had just spent 2 hours unsuccessfully searching for tortillas. He had a hankering for tacos, which was destined to remain unfulfilled.
You can get excellent food in malls in Hong Kong. I had sort of been aware that good restaurants could be located in malls. Ground floor shop front space is in short supply, so restaurants often set themselves up elsewhere. But last Saturday, we went to see Precious and decided to go look for dessert as part of our attempt to process what we had seen. The theater was about a 10-minute walk from a big ritzy mall so that was where we headed. The mall, Langham Place, is architecturally very interesting. It is spread over 12 floors and has some wonderful open areas that allow you to look down through most of those indoors. I don't think it can be very "green" - it must take a lot of energy to cool that volume of air. It also has some very long escalators, which means that you can get up 12 floors in 3 flights. Anyway, to get back to the food, we toured the mall in search of dessert, but also noticed the crowds of people, at 10.30 PM, sitting and eating dinner. There were lots of different kinds of food and all of it looked good. Actually, I am sure there must have been a McDonalds there also, so perhaps that was an overstatement. We ended up at a Japanese/Western fusion restaurant on the 11th floor and enjoyed delicious and unusual desserts. The mall did start to close around 11 PM, much later, of course, than those in most US cities.
A snowstorm would feel pretty good right now. For the past week or so, the temperatures have been in the mid to high 70's and the air has been as wet as it can get. Warm fog is a new phenomenon for me, but visibility quite often has been down to about 50 yards. The great view that we have out across Victoria Harbour has been reduced to gray, and boat foghorns have been added to the background noises. We had been washing our clothes in our machine and then hanging them to dry, because we don't have a drier. That doesn't work any more because they just don't dry. So now we have to take them to the laundry. Elizabeth and I realized that the dirty smudges on the wallpaper in our bedroom were actually healthy (or rather unhealthy) growths of mould. Fortunately, the wallpaper was washable, so that was what we did. Also fortunately, it was warm enough to turn on the air conditioner and use it to dry out the room.
I had been thinking that Hong Kongers were lousy pedestrians, because I keep having to adjust my direction to avoid them as I move at my faster than average pace. In fact, I think they are just average pedestrians, although they do walk a lot more than the average Western city dweller. My collision avoidance tactics are required simply because the density of people is so high that there is very little space between us. It’s a bit like driving a car in London, where you have to get used to negotiating narrow spaces with very little clearance.
Here is my final difference for today. This afternoon I met with the director of Hong Kong Community College, which is affiliated with PolyU. Hong Kong has community colleges, just like the US, to give opportunity to those who cannot attend a university. However, here it costs more to attend community college than one of the state-sponsored universities. I think about 16% of high school leavers can find a place at one of the 8 government funded universities. For those that cannot get in and don't have the resources to go abroad, there are local private full degree colleges and there are these 2 year institutions. Community college students here are mostly school leavers, attend full time, and evening and weekend classes are not offered. And at least for HKCC graduates, they transfer into full degree institutions at a very high rate.