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February 13th, 2012 I realize that I haven’t been posting very much yet. Until I get into my own apartment, my routine is somewhat constricted, but that will hopefully change soon.
Like many developing countries, Thailand exhibits a large economic separation between its upper and lower classes but little physical separation, with multimillion-dollar high-rises sprouting up right next to slums. It’s somewhat depressing to see these giant towers and malls go up so quickly when so much of the population will only see them from the exterior. Developer countries certainly have class problems of their own, so don’t think that we are blameless either.
Compare the street market near the office building where I work to the shopping mall downtown. They both sell Hermes and Prada, just at very different price levels.
January 20th, 2012 Or, The One Where I Got to Do Something Tourist-y for Work
As an analyst, most of what I do for work will never be posted to my blog. Once in a while, though, I get to do something outside of my standard job duties that is worthy of mention here, and today happened to be one of those days.
We had some associates in town from Taiwan, so we took them to see one of our distributor-operated facilities, which happened to also be a short distance from the Grand Palace. To give you an idea of what traffic is like here, even when it isn’t rush hour, it took us an hour to drive the 10 miles from the downtown office to the facility.
After touring the facility, we went to the Grand Palace, where I got to act as a chaperon/marker (i.e. Follow/Look for the tall white guy.) I managed to snap a few shots with my phone — I’ll go back later with a real camera, but these are still more interesting than spreadsheets, right?
 Continue reading …
January 17th, 2012  With classes out of the way, I need to find a new source of motivation and or stress. Living in Thailand/Malaysia/Indonesia will probably provide a fair amount of excitement, but as those changes aren’t really completely under my control, I can’t legitimately use them as goals. So in lieu of exciting goals, I’ve come up with a few that are less exciting but a tad more actionable:
- Visit at least one new country for each country I live in during 2012. Given my itinerary, I shouldn’t have any problem crossing this off of my list. And no, a layover in an airport does not count as a visit to a country.
- Make an attempt to start learning a new language. I realize that this is a weak goal, but until I have a better idea of exactly where I’ll be living, it doesn’t make any sense to be more specific or to fully immerse myself in any single language for the time being.
- Learn how to cook a few dishes native to each country in which I reside.
Okay, so it’s not a very long list, but that’s okay. After all, I did just move to the other side of the globe, and that should count for something, right?
January 15th, 2012
Greetings from Thailand — I’m still recovering from jet lag (a few more days to go if the time zone rule is correct), and I haven’t attempted any sightseeing yet, but I’ll try and write a bit every few days regardless. I purchased a new phone on Friday, so I should be able to post a few more photos from my daily routine (which is currently anything but routine.) I don’t have my own apartment yet, so these photos are not representative of where I’ll be living, but they are very indicative of the weather here and the city in general. Continue reading …
December 8th, 2011 It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post, and while I don’t have a ton of new information, here’s what I know so far:
- I’ll be flying out of SLC on January 8th and will arrive in Bangkok on the 10th
- For at least my first few days in Bangkok, I’ll either be couch surfing or at a hotel for a bit until I find an apartment
Not a lot, I know, but more than I knew before. I already have my plane ticket, I’m getting caught up on my immunizations (plus a few extras just for good measure), and I’ve started working on my entry visa. I’ve already sold my apartment lease as well as my TV, so as soon as finals are over, I’ll begin packing everything else into storage.
Dec. 19th Update: I submitted my visa application last Thursday with a visa courier service, so that’s one more thing to check off on my list. I’m using a Thule 699 case to ship my bike over — disassembling my bike wasn’t too difficult, but with a 58cm frame, I was doing well just to fit it into the case, even with the fork removed. If my bikes survives the trip over, though, it will be well worth the trouble and the cost.
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