The Whole Country Celebrates My Birthday!!!

April 12^th is a day of celebration. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying this because it is my birthday but because it is really a day of celebration. In fact, in Thailand it’s the beginning of a whole week of celebration. It is the time of Songkran, which is the Thai New Year. People in Bangkok celebrate it for three consecutive days by throwing water at each other and putting a kind of pale yellow powder, apparently made up of flour paste, on people’s faces. Likewise, it is the New Year for many Asian countries such as India, Cambodia, Nepal, etc. This birthday has definitely been the most special one because I felt as if the whole world was celebrating it with me (also this is my 25^th birthday, silver jubilee of my birth!). 

On the morning of my birthday, we had a small celebration at the office to start the Songkran, where we all blessed each other with water and then had coconut ice cream. Two other staff at my office also had their birthdays on the same date so that was kind of exciting! Later we went for lunch at a Japanese restaurant at the end of Khaosan Road, which went on for almost couple hours. This was the longest lunch I have had during office hours. But thankfully I was able to finish the work that I wanted to by the end of the day. After work, few of my work colleagues and I went to “happy hour” at Phra Atit Lounge, a restaurant nearby my office. So we all went there and ordered Chang beer, one of the most commonly sold Thai beers. Although I did not like this beer before, I was actually enjoying it this time to my surprise. Also, a friend brought blueberry pie (since she could not find any cake shops open) that I cut as my birthday cake.

After the happy hour was over, we went to “Good Story” across Phra Atit Lounge to play pool. I think we played at least 5 games there swapping partners, out of which my team won 2. It was 9 PM by then, too early to go home or to a bar so instead we decided to go to the roof of one of our colleagues’ apartment buildings. It was great fun there, as we sat on the wall of the roof looking upon a klong (small river in Thai) with our legs hanging down. My friends were sipping beer and I was sipping water  J. In couple hours my friends became hungry and started craving for McDonalds. Although I am strongly against such fast food places, McDonalds delivers 24 hours in Bangkok so my friends ordered Big Mac for themselves and chicken nuggets for me (chicken nuggets?).When I asked why they ordered those for me, they insisted that I told them to, lol. They were too drunk for me to argue with them so instead I just enjoyed my chicken nuggets.

By midnight we were quite tired and my friend was falling asleep on her chair so we decided to get back home, promising each other a full day and night party the next day (actual Songkran day). Next day, my Thai friend called me around 11 am, saying she will be stopping by in about an hour to go to Khaosan for playing Songkran. So I had to hurry and get ready for the game. We were joined by another friend of hers. So three of us headed to Khaosan and were joined by another friend soon. It was crazy!!! There was a great combination of locals and foreigners splashing and shooting water at each other along with some people going crazy with the powder paste. After couple hours at Khaosan, we decided to pick one of our colleagues from his house and took a Tuk Tuk together all the way to Silom. It was much more crowded and crazier. After taking half way walk through the crowded street, we all got hungry and again McDonalds was open!!! So we went there and this time I got a chicken burger. We wanted to refill our water guns but they had closed their restrooms so instead we went across the road where we paid 10 baht each to use a restroom and fill our guns. We also met more colleagues from work. Then we pushed (literally, where I was using one of our tough built colleagues to push us all through) our way to the fire department’s water hose. The strong water force from the fire hose was great fun. This reminded me of my childhood when I used to take bath in the fields by the irrigation water borings.

After a while we decided to climb on the water truck and spray everyone from up there. It was the most fun thing of the day for me. My other colleagues started climbing the truck as well and once the truck got crowded the firemen kicked us out. After couple hours in Silom, I was getting cold and tired so I decided to go back home and get dry (later learned that my other friends left soon after I did as well so I did not miss much). We all met for dinner at Pla Dib, a famous Japanese style restaurant in Aree. After a long dinner there, we decided to go to The Nest, one of the night bars/clubs in Sukumvit area that majority of us had not been to. But on our way we stopped at a traffic light at Victory Monument, where there is a nice jazz bar called Saxophone. So within the red traffic light span of 38 seconds we decided to check that one out instead. It was my first time there and I loved the live music that the band was playing. My colleague ordered me Bombay Rouge as my birthday treat. By midnight, I was getting a little tired. It had been a long day (or a long week since I had been going out so much) so I wanted to go home and rest.

Next day I got a call from my mom early morning wishing me a Happy New Year and Jurshital. Jurshital is a tradition in my Mithila culture by which elders bless you with icy cold water for strength and courage to face any cold situations in life. This is of course very similar to Songkran, the one difference though is that instead of flour powder we smear each other with mud. Likewise, Holi is very similar tradition, which is celebrated with colored water and powder colors. It is always fascinating to find different countries and cultures having similar traditions. This makes me ponder on how similar we humans are regardless of the artificially created borders.  

Singapore ~ The Garden City

They say a book cannot be judged by its cover. Well, the moment I reached the Singapore airport and discovered that I did not need a visa to enter the city state, I was wowed; it was love at first sight. As a citizen of Nepal, I have never experienced such privilege of not needing a visa to enter a country with an exception of India of course. But that does not count because India is the next door neighbor and our cultures are so alike that it does not even feel like abroad. What is more, the immigration officer also gave me sweets while I waited for him to stamp my passport :).

Singapore is obviously the cleanest city that I have ever seen. It has so much greenery and it is the only city that still has the natural Amazon forest within the city. No wonder it is called the garden city; a city built in the garden. Besides the cleanliness and the greenery, what impressed me most was the beautiful contrast between the modern sky scrapers and the traditional buildings. The Singaporean government has declared many old buildings as heritage and so regardless of their location they must be conserved. This gives a unique feel to the city with both the modern and traditional buildings located in the same area. SG is a multicultural city state with majority Chinese, followed by Malay and South Indian population. So this city state has four official languages (including English)J.

My first day, I decided to take a tour bus on my own since my friend was not feeling well. I was almost at the end of my tour when an Indian looking guy approached me asking if I was a tourist in the city. Although it was an obvious thing, I still decided to answer him. After couple minutes of conversation, I found that he was an engineer working in Australia and his firm had designed and distributed artificial hands for UNICEF. I was getting really hungry and could hardly concentrate at our conversation and just then he asked me if I wanted to join him for dinner with his Singaporean friend in about half an hour. It was a random proposal and I would have usually said no but the thought of having a local’s company game me away. We went to Arab Street which was full of traditional buildings and many Middle Eastern, Lebanese and Turkish restaurants. Although the food was great, what made is better was the useful insights on Singaporean politics, culture and social issues. After dinner, they decided to go to China town and invited me to come along as well. But I did not want to give wrong ideas so I decided to head to my friend’s place instead.

Next day my friend and I went to Sentosa Island and spent a fabulous day there. Afterwards my friend suggested that we go to the Marina Bay Sands Casino. Since I had never been to one before, it sounded exciting. But I did not want to lose a lot of money so I decided to carry 200 dollars with me. My friend had recently lost her work permit (which worked as a combination of social security and driver’s license in SG) so she carried her passport with her. But Singapore does not give visa to people with work permit so they did not let her inside the casino L. I did not want to play alone so I just took a tour of the casino and came back thinking perhaps God did not want me to lose money. So my friend and I took a nice walk by the Marina Bay instead looking at the beautiful financial district area, floating mall and opera. We also enjoyed the light show (that my friend was not even aware of) at 8 pm.

Next morning was my flight but I was worried that I would get stuck in the traffic but to my surprise, there were hardly any cars on the road. The SG government has efficient public transport facility with tight restrictions on ownership of cars, making it one of the most expensive states to own a car. I loved everything about SG and as a tourist with free accommodation it was a beautiful experience for me. But I was still a little disturbed with the thought of the immigrants with very low paying jobs. Most of them borrow large amounts of money to fund their visa and flights, I cannot comprehend how they manage their lives in such an expensive city and at the same time save to send back to their families.

A Fisherman's Tale

My colleague and I had fixed lunch to catch up after the Christmas and New Years break. I found out that he had never been to the Som Tam place. Som tam (papaya salad) is an Ishan (northern) dish in Thailand, which is very popular among both locals and foreigners. Since my office is located on Phar Atit Road, one of the touristic places in Thailand, we have plenty of options for lunch and there are many places that we have not managed to explore yet.

As always we had lots to catch up with each others’ lives. He started talking about his missions (field trips) and his holiday. Then he was telling me about his uncle who owned a house in Japan. After having lived a rigorous working life, his uncle had decided to retire by a seaside in Japan. How his uncle would take him to the sea where they would spend hours fishing. His uncle could sense which parts had fish and which did not just by looking at the water. After a good catch, they would enjoy a nice barbecue by the sea. Since the uncle was from a family of fishermen, fishing was in his blood and he spent most of his day on his boat. His wife was never worried about him; she knew that he would always come back.

One of such days, he took his boat and cleaned it carefully. Then he went to the sea. But unlike other days, he did not come back that day. Hours after dark when there was no sign of him, the wife started getting worried. She inquired around the neighborhood but no one had seen him. His boat was not there in the shed either, meaning he was still on the sea. Police were called and they started a search. They found his boat floating in the sea and a half broken fishing rod. They searched the water nearby but could not find him. As much as he loved being on the sea, he had now become a part of the sea.

After hearing this story the first thing that came to my mind was: all this time he was the one catching fish and now the fish had caught him.

The Day(s) my Phone Decided to Die

It was one of those college M n C (milk and cookies) times. As much as I love snacks, I could never miss a healthy one. As soon as the time in my laptop said 9.30 PM, I grabbed my “hugs and kisses” mug and of course my phone. It may sound crazy but I take my phone everywhere with me, even in the shower. With a full mug of milk and phone in one hand and some chocolate chip cookies in my other hand, I was walking back to my room. Just when I leaned forward to open the door to my room, my phone slipped into the milk as if it did not want to be with me anymore. After almost a year of relationship with me, it wanted to leave me and that too by such cheap attempt? But I would not let it happen; I could not give up on it yet. I am a committed person and I would do anything to save my relationship.

I washed my phone with water immediately (I know it seems a crazy thing to do...washing it with water after it was already soaked in milk but I could not let my phone stay dirty and sticky from the milk. After washing and cleaning, I dried my phone with soft hand tissues and then dried it with my hair dryer. Since the hair dryer made the phone real hot, I let it cool for a while and then left it to rest for hours. After a good rest, I switched it back and to my surprise the phone started working. It did not give up on me. My love proved to be powerful.

Almost after a year of the incident I came to Thailand. It took some adjusting for us to reinvent our relationship with a new surrounding and of course the new network and sim card. We seemed to be doing well until one morning when I was really sleepy and moved reluctantly out of my bed. In the process, my phone fell into the garbage bin. I had not been feeling that well the previous night and the bin was full of cough...(I know! Yewww). Although it was disgusting, I could not let my phone drown in it so I picked it up and bathed it for the second time, only praying to God that he would do miracle again. But this time, I was getting late for work so I took it to work with me and kept giving it a jerk as if to make it vomit out all the water that it had swallowed. But still the phone was making sounds as if it was in great pain and the screen kept flashing. I even gave it mouth to mouth which I had learned recently at one of the UN training.

After about an hour of work, I could no longer bear to see my phone suffer and hence I went off to find a hair dresser. I asked the hairdresser for a hair dryer and she looked at me as if i was crazy. Instead she suggested that I took it and handed it over to a phone mechanic. But I had full trust in my phone and I did not want to hand it over to some stranger. So I offered to pay for electricity but she lent me a hair dryer and for free. Then she went off about her work, giving some private time to me and my phone. I dried my phone again and let it rest for few hours. Then with much love and prayer, I switched it on during lunch break and to my surprise, it was working again. I could not believe my luck. I felt an unnatural connection with my phone. We were meant to be together for longer than this.

It is perhaps not healthy to be attached to technology this way and one day it will probably stop working. But hey, just because there is an ending to every story does not mean we do not enjoy the ride, right?

An Ode to a Friend!

I am very excited about this post for three reasons. First, it has been more than two months since I last did one (I had taken time off for my graduate applications). Second, it is my first post of this New Year 2012. Third and most importantly, this is dedicated to all my friends in my life, wherever they are. I went to live in a hostel when I was nine years old since Kathmandu was (and still is) the hub for quality education. I have been living away from my family for over fifteen years now and FRIENDS have played vital role in my growing up. They have been family, friends, relatives and my home.

Of course I am always thankful for the company of my friends but now that I am in Bangkok, away from all my friends from school and college, I realize how blessed I have been all my life. In school, I had friends whose parents used to visit often as they were from the city but my parents lived twelve hours away so I only got to see them twice a year during holidays. But whenever my friends’ parents visited, they would also bring gifts and other things for me, making me feel much loved. I remember one particular incident that I want to share here (I hope you will forgive me for sharing this publicly). One of my close friends’ mother used to work in the school library. Although outside food was strictly prohibited on campus, she was allowed to bring snacks as she was a staff . Being one of the greatest cooks I have met in my life, I used to love her cooking and pickles that she made. My friend always took me with her and we used to sit in reference section and share the food brought by her mother.

I spent my high school in the UK, far away from home, where I was lucky to find some really close friends who were always there for any kinds of support that I needed. For college, I moved even further to the US, where I was able to find many friends. College became so much fun because of friends. Then I moved to Bangkok, and ironically it is very close to home but I did not know anyone here. Luckily, I found couple people who were affiliated to my previous academic institutions and a friend’s close relatives. I have been lucky to have found both friends and family here.

With Christmas and New years on their way, I was missing my family and friends back “home” dearly. And then came the best times of my stay in BKK. A friend visited Thailand over his winter break and I got to spend both new years and Christmas with him and his family. Fortunately, I had long weekends during both of those celebrations and we had so much fun with family meals, shopping and looking around the city. Although I had done these things before, they were not as much fun before. I even took some time off to go to an Island (with local friends) about 4.5 hours away from the city and the place was serene. There were fireworks and live music by the beach and it was just like a fairytale.

My friend is now back to the US and my life has taken its usual course (with work and lazy weekends) but I will always cherish the days we spent together. Thank you so much for making Thailand special for me. I will live by those memories until I come back to the US and reunite with all my loved ones. I dedicate my happy days to my friends all over the world who have created such beautiful pages in the book of my life. Sometimes we tend to take things for granted but I hope that deep inside we are all grateful to such beautiful lives we have been given.

Love,

A Lucky Friend