A Weekend in Bangkok

I've been doing a lot of traveling in the past few weeks and it's kept me from keeping my blog up. But all stories will be told, one by one. So we'll start with this, the story of a weekend in Bangkok:

In Asia, a lot of companies circumvent a lot of visa renewal paperwork by having employees leave the country for at least one night so the social pass can start while the professional visa is processing. As my initial work visa expired on August 19^th, I had to leave the country that day. The easy option was to take a cheap bus ride to Singapore; however, I’ve been there before. Therefore, I wanted to see something different, hence a trip to Thailand. So once we convinced the big boss man to pay for part of the plane ticket, we decided to take a weekend trip to Bangkok. We arrive and head to a known ‘back packer’ area called Khaosan Road. I like such areas because there is good but cheap accommodations, locals anxious to present local food to foreigners (such as pad thai and cow pai), and street vendors selling various kinds of hand made goods. There are street vendors everywhere, but they displayed a new product that I’ve never seen hustled on the street before – tailor made suits. Instead of displaying all products on their cart, they were trying to usher you into their shop full of fabrics so they could start taking your measurements. It’s a unique experience, much different from the fake clothes and illegal DVDs you can get anywhere.

The tuk tuk – a motorized cart named for the sound the older engines used to make when it ran - is a unique trait of Bangkok. You can name several different locations you would like to see and it will provide you transportation for the entire period to all the locations you outlined. Pricing depends on whether you’ve gotten intel from locals about what is reasonable and what is not. We quickly found that Bangkok is full of con men and they will take you for as much money as you agree to pay them. Also, some of them are working for suit makers or jewellery stores and plot all along to take you there and convince you to spend money there. Most likely, the stores are paying them some kind of commission. It’s so elaborate in some places that locals in public places are participating to send people to these stores. We ended up in a suit shop this way, but we didn’t buy anything. Despite that, I saw several Buddhist temples, and landmarks this way. After coming out of one temple, the tuk tuk had ditched us, probably for the prospect of a higher pay day. But he had not received any money yet, so it was not such a big deal. The next day, using cabs instead, I saw more monuments to Kings and Generals, a precious art exhibit, the National Elephant Museum (Thailand markets itself as the Kingdom of Elephants), a historically significant mansion and more.

As for nightlife, it was a very refreshing weekend of interesting experiences. We met Americans and Germans there who convinced me to try locusts while out on the town; actually tastes like popcorn really. We experienced the Thai live cover band experience also. Even further, I met up with a friend from middle school who I hadn’t seen in about 10 years for drinks. Random sidenote: It’s magical that through the gift of Facebook, people whose paths have gone so different places can reconnect seamlessly. I won’t go into detail, but after catching up, we experienced some of the legendary Bangkok night entertainment. Although it was entertaining, it was disappointing in some ways. It’s still an experience I’d recommend though. I’d like to go again at some point when I have more time. The only downside was, due to being congested when I got on the plane, the pressure as the elevation changes in the plane caused the phloem to clog up my ear. I mean, my ears always pop on a plane but usually chewing gum or swallowing hard would relieve the pressure; this time was different for some reason, the ears were agonizingly painful. The ears were blocked like this much of the time there and started up again during the trip back unfortunately. But I got it largely taken care of before my next trip. See various pictures below:

Ramadan and its Quirks/Perks

It's once again Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. It's last one month based on the Islalamic lunar calendar, meaning the exact dates and lengths vary from year to year. I arrived in Malaysia on the second day of it last year and had no idea what to expect. This year i know what to expect and can appreciate it more. The concept is that the fasting displays the devotion to ignore the demands of the body and pray to come close to Allah. Fasting persons usually wake up and gorge themselves as much as they can before 5am (or whenever the exact start time is for the fast) and then are not allowed to eat or drink anything until "berbuka puasa" (meaning the break of fast) which is usually around 7:30pm. Working on an outdoor construction site in a country with year long summer isn't the easiest situation to fast for my coworkers. I adamantly try not to eat or drink in front of anyone I know that is fasting. A former coworker used to jokingly become angry every time someone had the audacity to consume something in front of him. I've come to find out that my Bangladeshi workers (about half, along with Indonesians) are not fasting. I've routinely caught them eating or drinking on-site during the fasting hours. Although I can't blame them due to the physical demands of the job, I do wonder just how other Muslims feel about it when they see it. I remember last year my boss told me that the police can arrest you if you're Malay and get caught eating at a restaurant during fasting hours. Our workers have set up three concession stand-like shops on our site so they don't have to risk being caught and detained by the police but its still slightly risky business. Especially as much as the local authority institution DBKL (I jokingly say it stands for 'Douche Bags of Kuala Lumpur') likes to pop up and attempt to procure bribes on site. The dinners they have at 'buka puasa' are simply amazing. I've already been to one, I was disappointed I couldn't fully take advantage of the buffet because I had such a big lunch that day. But one good thing about being widely liked is that I will have more opportunities. LOL.

A Run in with the Local "Gangsters"

Funny story. To start I'll give you some background information about the way things are here in Malaysia. There are no guns, there is little crime (relative to the US) and the only people that an American like me would perceive as being actually dangerous would be certain groups of Nigerians who carry machetes and have short tempers. However, natives often tell me about these groups of Indians who beat people up and steal things. They often travel in packs on their little motor bikes and are feared here. An older Chinese man in my company had his truck stolen by a group like this who roughed him up some and drove off with it. So I'm coming back from a long drive (about an hour away to a college town near the airport) and I stop at a gas station real quick. The person I'm riding with doesn't want anything, so she stays in the car. The car was left running, a person in it, the radio playing, in a spot that I will have to back out of. So I come out of the gas station and get in the car, start to back up. I had backed up less than one foot and I make contact with something. Apparently some Indian dude parked his motorbike right behind the bed of my pick-up truck on one side. The bike is shorter than the bed of my truck, so I might not have done a thorough inspection before I started moving, but the bike was still parked in a very bad spot. So I get out, the guy picks up his bike. To my eye, there is not a scratch on it. The parts that hit the ground were find, the part I made contact with, not a scratch. However, the Indian pint-sized Indian guy is going ballistic. He's trying to say something is out of alignment, although whatever he is pointing at is neither at the points that touched the ground or that touched the car. So he's blowing hot air as far as I'm concerned. Plus he's in an almost empty parking lot, why would he decide to park behind a car that is running and obviously going to move very soon? I look back, his friend has moved his bike behind the truck now to block me in. Furthermore, he makes one phone call and within 3-4 minutes there are about 8 undersized (5'4" to about 5'7" none more than about 160 lbs) surrounding me yelling. As with the police and other institutions in Malaysia, my assumption is that they're looking for a quick payday; they think they're going to intimidate me into giving them some large amount of money and they'll leave me alone. They picked the wrong target. I'm huge for Malaysia, I'm too smart to conform to this buffoonery, and I honestly don't have money to spare until I get paid again anyway. So the first few are kind of squaring me off like they want to start fighting; luckily I changed my mindset and put just a little bit of crazy in my eye and that did the trick calming them down. Then they went the police route. I guess they think I'm an African and I'm illegal or something, so they thought the prospect of the police would blow my wallet open. My response "Call 'em." The guy is claiming his brother, uncle and everyone else are policemen; but the reality is, there is not a scratch on your bike, period. What more needs to be said? So after I called their bluff, they finally got the picture that I wasn't gonna play ball with them. So they left still threatening "This isn't over, the police will contact you." This happened weeks ago, I haven't heard a word from the police or my company (owners of the truck). It's almost laughable to me that their methods are so successful. Interesting times...

The Petty People Running Me Out of Malaysia

Every time I tell anyone where I am and what I'm doing, their immediate response is always "Man, that's amazing. U must love it. U might stay over there forever, huh?" And I realize how blessed I am to have this opportunity. Unfortunately, I can not shake the fact that some of the other involved parties in my project are somewhat ruining the experience for me. I’ve told quite a few people about the client I work for insisting that we don’t get along because “I refuse to conform to the demands of petty people.” I’m sad to report that its getting worse, I’m losing patience and respect for anyone associated with our client as it seems that their company’s culture is turning normal people in grown up cry babies and tattle tails. Because they’re in the position of simply asking and having nothing expected of them. It’s the classic case of “Give an inch, and they will take a mile.” It started with minor things; requesting for test to be redone when there is no evidence that there was anything wrong with the previous tests, complaining about us using recycled paper, etc. Because it’s all our money, time, and effort that makes these things happen, they do no mind asking for anything under the sun. Oh, but wait, it gets worse…

Then it escalated to pointless additions to paperwork. Processes which were previously 1 or 2 steps made into 4 or 5 steps to get to the exact same end. Bickering about the difference between 30 carpenters documented and the 27 they say they saw even though they don’t bother walking to more difficult parts of the site, etc. Our test cube situation is a telling example. Here in Malaysia, each time concrete is poured cube-shaped samples are poured to be tested for strength at 7 and 28 days. Usually cubes being too weak is the issue, they were complaining that many of our cubes were too strong. I’m from the US, if you’re supposed to give me grade 35 strength and you give me grade 50, I won’t complain about getting $50 instead of $35. To make matters worse, the client’s site representatives, who were the ones asking for all this foolishness, wanted to eliminate all evidence that they actually requested it. Now they want to have an opinion (well, actually the right to approve or disapprove) all kinds of paperwork which doesn't concern them in any manner. A few times their resident engineer (a power position on site) would make a decision, but when we try to make the decision official in documentation, he would scurry to keep us from revealing the fact that he requested it; he wanted us to act like we just randomly decided to do it. Some people, into diplomacy, are willing to just comply regardless; not me.

Then our consultant engineer was holding up the project by questioning the work of EVERY other engineer despite his expertise being different from theirs. The process is backwards here to begin with. Despite having this man - a C&S engineer with specialty of building and structures – being paid by the project already, he does not design solutions for on-going C&S issues. Despite producing much of our structural designs, he refuses to help us with issues, even on aspects he designed. His response when we ask for his help is “my service would be expensive, you can’t afford my services.” He, or should I say ‘they’, we’re forced to hire an outside engineer to design the solution and we have to propose it to them for their approval. As if that isn’t enough, he (a building specialist) is never satisfied and has questioned the expertise of our scaffolding specialists, our soil specialists, or bored piling specialists, and everyone else. In the name of diplomacy, we have to honor their concerns and try to get more explanation or technical discussion, which takes time; time, in life as well as construction, is the one thing that you can NEVER get back once it is gone. He’s even tried to implement his own “re-writes” to another engineer’s designs. Through all this, he tries to play “good guy” whenever he is confronted; with the whole, “well, someone has to ensure that the things are being done correctly.” Well, if we could eliminate the middle man and have you design C&S solutions and talk to any other engineers if you have concerns, we wouldn’t have these issues.

Now, it’s the childish tattle telling (often false) that is getting on my nerves now. Conventional wisdom would say that in a professional environment, if you have a problem with something someone is doing, you should try to deal with them. Only if that doesn't work should you go to ur immediate supervisor and so on, right? Wrong here. Our site surveyor went on leave for 3 days to handle some family issues, which was communicated to our client’s site staff. Well, despite already having the situation explained to her, our Senior Clerk of Works (the most power hungry and petty of them all) writes a letter to the bosses of all parties complaining that there is no surveyor on site. The client and consultant bosses, also being increasingly disrespectful and petty, make a huge issue out of this during our site meetings. This in addition to the other issues that didn’t concern the clients which they have made huge issues about (temporary building structures, calibrations on machinery, etc), they even went so far as to try to forbid our staff from taking leave on meeting days. How is their decision in any capacity?

It's unfortunate for any decision to be taken out of your hands by other people; and I wouldn't say that is completely the case. But I will say, working 6 days a week at a site which people who I don't really respect because of their petty and childish antics is wearing on me. It could be cultural difference, it could just be them. Either way, it's a situation I may need to remove myself from before I truly tell someone about themselves and paint myself as the tall, angry Black man that everyone in Malaysia fears so much, and who I've tried to avoid being so that I don't come off as intimidating. I'm the youngest one on site, I just expect everyone to act like adults. The blame game and tattle telling with no direct communication isn't productive.

Malaysian Driving

Surprisingly, it only took me a day or two to adjust to driving a stick with the other hand, on the other side of the car, on the other side of the street. But with the newfound freedom comes consequences. I knew from Day 1 that they drove differently here in Malaysia, even from the passenger seat. But only in the last week since I've started driving did I learn the full magnitude of what really goes on on the roads and in the parking lots of Malaysia. Due to the very very small cars, everyone is used to driving in ridiculously close proximity to one another already. I am from the US - where it's not unusual to see a bigger car - and I'm driving a pick-up truck (making me one of the longest cars on the road here), I'm not so used to it. I've never felt the need to be 10 inches from the back bumper of the car in front of me while we're waiting at the red light. Furthermore, I'm quickly becoming convinced that the concept we know as the "Right of Way" doesn't exist here. It's the only valid explanation for the number of times cars have cut me off, merged in on me, or turned out in front of me in situations where I clearly had the 'right of way.' How do they know I'm going to allow them in, or slow down when u've lazily turned out in front of me, or when I'm already driving straight at full speed. At one point, I almost felt like I should keep my speed make an example out of one car to affirm my seriousness to the rest; like the first guy you beat up in jail so let the rest know not to mess with you. But I declined. And all this is without mentioning that even Asian men keep telling me that the stereotype about Asian women being the world's worst drivers is true; they say they have tunnel vision, always focused forward never checking mirrors, using turn signals, or anything concerned with the sides. When I'm in a car and a nearby car does something erratic, they often say "Must be a woman driving." As for parking, they do things here that would NEVER be acceptable in the US. Here, in one particular parking lot I frequent which is always full seemingly, a Honda City (smaller than a Honda Civic) was parked diagonally taking up 3 spaces (pictured below). I felt like smashing the car like Kathy Bates on "Fried Green Tomatoes." And everywhere you go, if the parking lot fills, cars will simply park perpendicular and block cars in; random cars, driven by people they don't know. So then eventually you will have the blocked in driver (who is correctly parked), come out to his car and have to sit their honking his horn until the driver of the car blocking him shows up to move it. This process takes 30 mins or more sometime. I can only imagine the fights this practice would cause back Stateside. And double, even triple parking, on roads that may not even be big is not uncommon either. At times, it feels like a state of anarchy honestly. Do Better...

My American Vacation, Part 2: The Wedding and Philly

The actual justifiable reason for my month long vacation was my close cousin Tristan’s wedding to his wonderful fiancé Naomi with whom he has been in a relationship for 7-8 years. Tristan is almost perfectly spaced between me and my older brother (I’m 24, he is 28, my brother is 31), so naturally when we are around each other we interact like brothers. He’s intellectual and worldly so we have great conversation and interaction. His fiancé has a wonderful sense of humour and culture about her along with a very enthusiastic personality. The couple interacted just like best friends and I think they have something that will last. So I felt I needed to attend this once-in-a-lifetime event. Even if that mean spending over 1.5 months Malaysian pay for plane tickets, and another month’s pay for spending money total for my American vacation. So I rode down to Philadelphia from New York with a few of the groomsmen in the wedding; from the interaction during the ride, I knew it would be a fun time around all the characters. I came into town the day of the bachelor party and related functions. The comedic interaction between everyone was priceless all night; the drinking and the “festivities” of the night made it even funnier; I won’t go into detail about the night’s goings-ons, part of the man code. The wedding itself was beautiful, it took place at an old mansion site. The actual backdrop for the ceremony was a lake back behind the flower-covered structure that the wedding party stood at. It was beautiful. The groomsmen all came out in shades. My little cousin Merv, the groom's little brother, is 21 and had a Kool-Aid smile walking down the aisle with a much older and very attractive bridesmaid. The reception was very nice also. After the eating was over, it turned into an open bar party event, which was fly. You saw some ppl who had previously kept refined come out of their shell on the dance floor after about drink 3. Danielle, the bride's energetic cousin from Atlanta, and G, the groomsman with the braids pictured, stole the show on the dance floor. G's smoothness crept up on a handful of different women as the night went on. Danielle hit the dance floor with the enthusiasm of Diamond Princess from Crime Mob (it's a young ppl reference, if u don't know who that is, don't sweat it). Watching my retired Air Force Lt. Col father dance is also entertaining whenever I see it. It made for an interesting night. Despite the financial turmoil that the trip has put me in for the next month and change, it was worth it. I love my family. I hope they enjoy the honeymoon in St. Martins...and my Asian wedding gifts. Enjoy the pictures below.

My American Vacation, Part 1: A Touristy Week in NY

It feels strange as an American to use the words "American Vacation" but I feel it's accurate when you actually have been living and working elsewhere and rather than just coming home and chilling, you're actually actively on a schedule seeing things and people. East Coast Tour may have been more accurate, but it's written now, so I'll just live with it. **Kanye shrug**After a quick 5 hour flight to Shanghai, a layover there, and 15.5 hours in the air bonding with a teenage Chinese chick who speaks only a few words of English, I landed at JFK Airport in New York City. This was my first opportunity to spend time in NYC old enough to truly do anything. I went there with some preconceived notions that I actually found to be outdated fairly quickly. I think in terms of stereotypes, NYC is still widely characterized by the city as it was in the 80's. Most New Yorkers I ran across were fairly friendly and personable, the streets aren't lined with homeless people and prostitutes at Times Square anymore, the subway cars aren't covered in artistic graffiti anymore (a bummer because I was looking forward to taking pictures of the artwork), you don't feel eminent danger walking the streets in the middle of the night (although I'd still recommend you know where you are going), etc. I give Rudy Guiliani a lot of credit for cleaning up the city quite a bit. Now, some rumors did end up being true: the prices for parking, housing and such are crazy expensive (see parking 'special' prices picture below). I saw an authentic NYPD beating of an unarmed and innocent homeless man, who had already been tased. 10 cops were beating him when I arrived (pictured below); his crime: dancing on the sidewalk. I wish I could say I was surprised they lived up to their reputation. But I enjoyed my trip so much because for the first time, I got a glimpse of why ppl call NYC the 'greatest city on Earth.' As a graduate from a college of Architecture, I look at cities differently than most ppl already, and NYC is a treat from that perspective. You see building in so many different styles, textures, and from different time periods sharing walls on the same block. See the picture below of the Home Depot which is in an almost victorian styled white building, you would never see that in other parts of the country, and probably the world. You see small things culturally that you usually wouldn't run into, every corner has several types of food including a Halal food stand amongst the more traditional American quick cuisine; I must have had at least 5 gyros from street vendors while I was there, see the picture below of the multi-colored bike which I randomly saw walking from the Brooklyn Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge and Empire State Buildings are like living legends of Architecture and were remarkably ahead of their time when built. The Guggenheim Museum itself and its art collection were fairly amazing, I would guess I stood out as the only young African American male and the only one wearing urban wear in such a prestigious museum. Any quirky interest or even fetish you have, there is a sub community (and possibly even a museum) there for it if you look hard enough. Any kind of music, hobby, food, clothes, art, you name it and you can find it there somewhere. The Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in Times Square fulfilled my quota for quirky and odd things (see shrunken head and wooden Mercedes pics below). Even the house next door to where I was staying had a fake decapitated head hanging by its eye lids hanging in the doorway (pictured below) and it's nowhere near Halloween. LOL. I got to meet Morgan Freeman (pictured below), so what if he was made of wax. LOL. The 24hour a day subway was very convenient, pretty much anywhere in Manhattan and much of Brooklyn, you're never more than about 4-5 blocks from a station. I had interesting discussions with various people, especially a gentleman I who was helping coordinate the renovation of the house I where I was staying in Brooklyn (shout out to Ms. Rita Brackeen for having me, apologies again for misplacing that set of keys) about different conspiracy theories and feelings towards the government; When I went to the 9/11 construction site and temporary museum, the side was lined with conspiracy theorists trying to 'educate' the tourists about how the attack was an elaborate hoax by the CIA. Whether or not I agree, I wonder just how strong of convictions a group of people have to make shirts, signs, and flyers to give out to people at the site of America's greatest tragedy site; it's a big step beyond talking about your suspicions in your living room. It's a spirit I can truly respect. On the walk back from the train station to where I was staying, I encountered a very public (although it should have been kept private) conversation between a cute girl with low self-esteem and her boyfriend (or whatever he'd called himself). It was entertaining if nothing else; it was like watching TV. LOL. Overall, I'm still not sure if I could live there due to the expensive living and all those ppl, but New York impressed me. And although I was underwhelmed by the women, I'll make sure I go back. Didn't get to see the Statue of Liberty, I guess I'll have to catch that girly next time. More vacation stories coming soon...