So far so good!! After a late arrival in Bangkok at 4am on Friday morning, I spent 6 hours at my hotel, trying to sleep unsuccessfully. I finally gave up, went for a short run, showered all the travel grime off my body, and then prepared to travel completely across the city to Ajarn Chai's house. I had the opportunity to meet all his sisters (I think I should have taken notes!) and have a bit of lunch before he called Sangtiennoi and had one of his trainers, Noi, come and pick me up to take me to Baan Muay Thai. I met Pook, the manager, and she got me settled in to my room – one room, AC, TV, bathroom with my own hose, and big bed. Sparse but comfortable for the time I’m here. I didn’t train Friday – being sleep deprived and totally jet-lagged, it didn’t seem like a good plan to start doing 5 minute rounds!!
Saturday I trained in the morning and in the afternoon. There are a couple of teenage fighters here, as well as 4 farang. It’s almost a TBA-affiliate school! Sangtiennoi is one of Ajarn Chai’s old students, and there are currently 3 TBA Kruu’s here – myself, Brian Popejoy (USA) and David (Mexico, don’t know his last name). Everyone is great – very friendly, the pad holding is excellent, and the training hard. Running before training of course (the boys do 13 km in the morning, which right now simply seems silly!) and then 4 km in the afternoon. 5 minute rounds, both pads and bag. So far so good! Although the first day almost killed me since I’ve been slacking for the last month or so. However, 5 minute rounds back to back to back in this heat after being in snow and -10 ฐC is enough to stop anyone short!The gym itself is huge – two full-sized rings, two covered pagodas with about 8-10 bags in each section (and some of them are harder than the big old bag at home), a weight and cardio room, pool, Thai massage area, a Buddha room, open spaces for Krabi Krabong, and a slew of other buildings which I have no idea what they are for. There is a stadium on site – Baan Klang Stadium, but I’m not sure it’s completed or if there have been fights in it to date. The complex has room for 500 people, but I think many of the rooms/apartments are rented out to other Thais.
Yesterday I decided to go to Chatuchak Market and then downtown. Possibly a mistake! Where I am living is quite far from Bangkok, and not touristy. Getting downtown is an expensive venture – taxi to Chatuchak and then take the skytrain or MRT downtown. I spent a while wandering around Chatuchak (at 8am, it’s not that busy) and then headed downtown to Raja stadium as I wanted to get another pair of Thai shorts. Transportation for one day included taxi, skytrain, subway, boat, and motorcycle!! Quite the selection for an 8 hour period. My taxi driver arranged to pick me up from Chatuchak Market at 3pm (he dropped me off there at 8:30am), which was very nice – also gave me his telephone number so that I could call him if I need a taxi again.
I somehow found myself in the pet section at Chatuchak. It’s
amazing what is for sale there – squirrels and hedgehogs seem to be favorites. Lots of random fowl, mice, rats, other small rodents I have no idea what they were, and fish. Lots of fish!! I bought a Siamese fighting fish, a bright red and blue incandescent one. I have named him Bong-Bong, in honor of the Thai slang which means to kick hard twice! For $1.10, I bought a fish, a bowl and a packet of food! He’s a very cheap roommate! I’m not sure what to do with him when I leave, but maybe he’ll take a swim in the klong next door… J One of the fish pet stalls I came across had huge grouper-like fish for sale. The funniest thing was the woman in the stall was actually frying up some small silver fish in a wok right next to the tanks of pet fish!! Hmmmm…
Today is my first day at the National Science Museum. I arrived here this morning (going for a run but forgoing training this morning since I thought I should show up early on my first day!) and was shown to the Director’s office by some of the staff – apparently it was known I was arriving!! NSM has three museums on site – IT, Science & Tech, and Natural History. I’ll be working in the Natural History Museum building. The director, Dr. Somchai Bussarawit, is a marine biologist who used to work at the Phuket Aquarium. He’s very nice, and has been showing me around, introducing me to his staff, etc. I attended a staff meeting this morning (didn’t understand a thing!) and will go for lunch later. He has ~ 10 staff, one of which did his MSc (paleo) at the Paris museum and actually knows Francois! The museum community is a small world apparently.
I had lunch with all the Directors and Vice-Presidents – it was a very relaxed, friendly lunch and I feel very welcome here. I’ve been given a desk in the collection manager’s office (herpetologist) and have unpacked and settled in. Along with doing my own writing, Ganigar wants for me to help her with creating mineralogy-related programming, which sounds like fun! There isn’t a big geology component to the NHM, but that could change. :) I was also introduced to the President - lead into his huge office and treated very well - again, all very informal and friendly. I was shocked by this actually - being someone who is generally very nervous and shy around high-level people like museum presidents, I felt very comfortable with him. He told me about their new museum project - the Rama 9 Museum, which is actually 4 museums in one complex. He also suggests that I give public talks at their downtown Science Square (near MBK for anyone who knows BKK) for Children's Day in January, and also possibly go with them to the far north-east in Issan to see the future Science Square up there. These are off-site satellite museums which cater to the local public with their own specific niche. Very cool!!!Back to work now. :)
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