Okay, quickly.

Nakhon Si Thammarat:

My trip to Nakhon si thammarat was quite interesting. um, nobody spoke english and i was left out to dry for the most part. it was frustrating, yet engaging. the first day i did absolutely nothing due to being tired, a bit sick, and lost amongst an entire population that knows zero english. the second day i went to part of the national park - really awesome. but after 6 hours in the morning i was a bit tired and didn’t want to (didnt know how) venture another 40 kms away from Nakhon. soooooooooooo i went to the railway station in town and booked a train home.

sooo yeah. i bought a 3rd class train ticket which would put me back in bangkok a day earlier than planned. i realized i couldnt really do much in nakhon alone and not knowing thai, and that i really just wanted to be in bangkok. the 3rd class 16 hour train ride back home was absolute hell, but something really good for me. definitely the worst and best travel experience i’ve had so far.

India

I go to India in 2 days. I have a plan, but one domino falling out of place will ruin me. i’ve talked to my friends that got back (who prepared for it about as little as i am) and they had their hands full. i accept the fact that india will kick my ass though, so maybe this is the first step to enjoying it.

Suit

Yes, suit for me. I went to a tailor after much deliberation and am splurging on a suit. the guy is suppose to be good and reputable, so it’s naturally more expensive. the process is pretty fun, and i pick it up tomorrow after a 3rd and final fitting. i’m somewhat pleased with it, but dont really know what im looking for or want, so hopefully it’s not a waste.

Adios

Everyone is leaving, and it’s unreal. comrades are lost daily and it’s not cool. tomorrow, 90% of people will be gone or heading south for christmas on Koh Lipe. it’s hard to comprehend that it’s over. im glad im staying later though to see everyone leave. i’ll be ready to go home now realizing that there really isnt anything here for me anymore when i return to an apartment full of strangers in january.

School

School’s over. I never studied so little on final exams in my life. i think i did fine though.

i have like a million other thoughts, and will add a million more after india which im assuming will be the next update. it’s been good. go vikings.

Friday I had my last class at Thammasat University. Naturally, it was boring and pointless to attend, yet it led to an odd feeling nonetheless. From now on I just have attempted study sessions and exams.

Tangent: Here’s a picture of what I’m going to eat today for 90 cents. Pad See Eew (rough english spelling). Click the thumbnail for a larger version of its goodness. 

Thanksgiving

So things are wrapping up here. Unofficial Farewell party on Thanksgiving at tiny coffee/shop bar near Democracy Monument was a massive success. While I missed Turkey and the trimmings and football and family, i was satisfied with my burger, fries, and beer. Honestly, I’m somewhat glad to be away for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. It makes you realize how arbitrary and socially constructed the holidays are. Being bombarded with music, adverts, santa clauses, and marketing bullshit is something i dont miss and it’s nice to skip it all for a year.

The King’s Birthday

December 6 is the King’s birthday. The King is very sick. Red shirts (the opposing political party of the current Prime Minister) are very active politically still. The former Red Shirt Prime Minister Thaksin is now living in nemesis neighbor Cambodia and wont be extradited to Thailand to face punishments for his crimes.

Celebrating the King’s birthday will be great. There’s huge hype for it. Not just because he’s so revered and it’s a huge national holiday, but because of the idea that he may pass on the crown to the Prince at this time.

In short, if this or something related happens, I may find myself amidst the world’s biggest political hot bed. Massive turmoil could ensue. Gossiping about such matters is highly illegal however, so I must stop here.

Enjoying

I’m trying to just enjoy everything here and forget the academic part.  I’m banking on 14 hour night before cram sessions at this point. It went too fast and people are already moving away and out. I don’t feel ready to go home and rebuild my life in the US just yet.

Farewell Party

There was an official BBA (business school) Farewell Party at the Baiyoke sky tower buffet - the tallest building in Bangkok. It was great. Picture slideshows, nicely dressed people, and four trips through a great buffet - sushi, steak, chicken, fish, salad, cake, crab, mussels….i gained at least 3 pounds, no exaggeration. The school reserved a private room downtown bangkok overlooking the cityscape. it was a nice farewell event, then we moved to a nearby bear garden on roof of CentralWorld mall to have a beer. The place really made me regret not bringing a camera, but I’m sure I’ll make a stopover there again before leaving, esp to laugh at the Christmas decorations that look oddly out of place.

Short life update. Still like 4 days until midterms are finished. Looking forward to just being done and able to waste my time without being guilty.

Ice Skating
Last week we went ice skating. The idea itself was novel enough to make it memorable, but it was crazy fun. Ironic since I haven’t been skating in like 12 years even though I reside in the epicenter of hockey @minnnesota. It was a small rink in a glitzy mall with an attached bar and karaoke. Most malls here are super odd when compared to the US, as massive cinemas, bowling alleys, and random entertainment things (like ice skating) isnt that uncommon. The term mall rats was created with Bangkok in mind.

Malaysia!
A flight to kuala lumpur Malaysia has been booked for 5 days in November. I heard of a 20% sale with AirAsia via twitter and the news quickly spread like rapid fire throughout the mansion. A frenzy of booking ensued and im proud i limited myself to just one flight unlike a few colleagues. ima be heading to Malaysia November 11-15 with a few friends for like $115. We’ll start the trip in someplace [island?] outside of the city and then spend the weekend being superficial in air conditioned KL shopping centers, as there’s really nothing to do in the city besides look at big pretty buildings from what i’ve read.

Laos
Quite certain I’ll be night training to Laos for 4-6 days October 22 with a posse of people.

Cambodia & Indonesia?
Cambodia is my #1 destination I need to get to after speaking with my friends who headed there. I will be spending 3-4 days in Phnom Penh no matter what. alone if I have to. Also, I just found cheap flights to Jakarta, Indonesia (50% off normal $250) so this is on my radar.

The roof
I spent 6 hours straight on the roof tonight talking yesterday, still reeling from previous night’s escapades. “you’re still up here? what have you done all the day?” ugh…..

Monday Night Football
I’m going to do my best to catch the Vikings game against the Packers on Monday Night (Tuesday Morning). There’s supposedly some bar that shows NFL games across town that a danish friend (who likes the nfl?) heard of, and I think watching Monday night football at 8am in a bar studying would be too much fun.

Southeast Asia weather
If you haven’t noticed, Southeast Asia has been rocked a bit by natural disasters of late. The Phillippines are drowning and Indonesia got pwnd by another earthquake, resulting in Typhoon warnings. tremors in indonesia just make me want to go more though, honestly.

But Thailand has been creeping into the high season for traveling, which im finding exists for a reason. Rather than the usual clowdy, 90 degrees, 90% humidity weather, now it’s cooling down, becoming sunny, and not nearly as humid. i really like this.

And all 500 facebook statuses have kindly reminded me of the Wisconsin-Minnesota game. ‘Buck the Fadgers’

im trying to procrastinate studying for my cost accounting exam. in my procrastination i realized how average today was, so i just thought to compile what i spent. here’s the figures in Baht.

• 30 - heaping take away box of street Pad see yew
• 11 - Bus ride to school
• 3 - Ferry to pier after leaving school
• 6 - Tuk tuk taxi from pier to apartment
• 45 - Sweet and Sour chicken and rice + water
• 20 - Ice cream cone
• 10 - Red bull

Total: 125 Baht. this is $3.74. Not bad cash flow.

While such cash accounting methods is really off, it’s interesting none the less.  in reality accrued expenditures come out to me consuming maybe 35 baht worth of groceries i have prepaid here, and my housing is costing me roughly 275 Baht/day. So let’s say i acutally spent $10 today. Not toooo bad, considering that would be 8 hours of rent in Minneapolis.

but now for, un-applied accounting practice problems…. boo.

So midterms are, ugh, here. My first is next tuesday, and then three in a row the following week monday through wednesday. while studying is somewhat scary and i don’t really know what to expect, it’s not the scariest part of midterms. rather, it’s a halfway point since i’ve been here thats a tad freaky. like, seriously? i just got here.

granted our terms are long and i have month long finals period, i’m like half done in bangkok and i feel like fall semesters are just getting underway. the thought of going back to anywhere near the US is just startling, and ill leave it at that.

while im getting a bit sick of a few things here and long for some home-ish things, im nowhere near ready to leave. benefits still > costs. im hoping to kick life into high gear once midterms are completed too.  what’s on tap:

1. family in bangkok & Phuket: after midterms are complete, i’ll be showing the ‘rental units around bangkok for some time and then heading to phuket until October 18. should be fun and im looking forward to doing active things other than hunting for street food once they arrive

2. Laos, Cambodia, or ‘Nam?: the following weekend starting Octboer 22 i’m going to get out of bangkok again for 5-6 days since i can afford to miss some class. there’s a whole big group going to Laos which i may join in on, but groups of over 8+ people are generally a recipe for disaster and annoyance. if it takes 3 hours for a group of 7 people to find  restaurant to eat at in bangkok, what the hell are we going to do in Laos other than sit in our guesthouse waiting for ole jane to finish washing her hair? okay, exaggeration, but yeah.  so preferably ill find a straggler or two and head to cambodia or some vietnamese places and islands instead, but we’ll see.

3. northern thailand, national parks, and/or ko chang: aggressive travel schedule just isnt practical with my classes, unless the university throws me a bone with a sweet finals schedule. i’ll hit 2 of the three listed, but im going to be missing out on a few neighboring countries id love love love to see (even again in the case of burma) unless i end up coming back to the states a week later… we’ll see.

4. more thai: generally i want more interaction with thailand than ive been getting as of late. i like my exchange friends and all, but the cultural exchange with thais would be pleasant, but bangkok as a whole doesnt really help much. while i like bkk, i think my prof said it best - ‘if you want to get to know thailand you need to leave the [bangkok] province.’ the place is the only metro area and the hub for everything commercial, western, eastern, traditional, etc…but it’s hardly actual thailand, especially after you’ve been here awhile.

5. random bangkok: some love for bangkok now - while i just went ice skating tonight (!!), i will be hitting up other western pleasures here as the Baht graciously allows me to do so. i plan on getting back on my streak of going to the cinema, for sure, and also will be going go karting, paintballing, water parking, and checking out other parts of the city in the outskirts to indulge a bit.

i think these 5 at least are necessary for me to be satisfied with my time here. it’s hard to say if i’ll ever get another chance to live for 5 months abroad in asia and i’d hate to regret just sitting on my computer waiting hours for youtube vids to finish buffering with my archaic internet speeds.

gameplan: check. realizatoin: check. grades:… okay not yet… no worries though.

but that is all. go gophers.

I expected my dollars to go far in Thailand, but not quite to the extent that they have so far. i still laugh to myself too often in disbelief about both the cost of living and how uber adapted i’ve become to this cpi level.
so first, some cost of living figures:

• rent: $200/month
• meals: $1-2/plate. Social situations force me into paying $3 at established restaurants to my dislike.
• Phone: $30 + sim card minutes – less than $.03/minute
• Transportation: 33 cent bus rides, and splitting taxis (necessary evil since old bangkok is the only area avoided by the subway and skytrain or subway) usually start at $.40. far distances (30 mins) will cost me $2
• Beer: 640 cl bottles of Chang are $1.30 in a seven eleven, $2-3 in a bar.
• Thai Whiskey: $4 liter
• Bottled water: 16 cents
• Knockoff Polo shirts: $5
• Knockoff jeans: $15
• Tshirt: $2.50
• Moves in cinema: $3

That about covers my main expenditures here.

After being here, you really realize how rich everyone in America is, and how really pathetic the rat race is on a macro level. Professionals in America kill themselves in order to get that one last decimal in their 401(k), but from a global perspective that one. extra. $100k. is. completely. unnecessary.

Tangent example time: my econ professor got her bachelors-phd in econometrics at USC, definitely one of the top tier institutions in the US. 5 years ago, she moved to Bangkok to work for the central bank of Thailand at a wage that was slightly less than what I made this past summer. That changes one’s perspective a bit.

Working Retirement example

What I’m getting at is that I don’t see the absolute necessity, in my life atleast, to have a $5 million in the bank when I retire. Since im a loser, here’s my math:

In Bangkok, one can live very, very comfortably (see: wealthy) on $1000/month. But I like buffers, and there’s always exchange rate risk when dealing with multiple currencies right? - so let’s say we want a ridiculous level of living at $2500/month. With a 30 year retirement, earning 4.5% interest on average yoy (half the historical S&P 500 return), one needs $500,000 to retire in Bangkok.

Remember this includes a beautiful high rise or gated community apartment, pool, bimonthly trips to anywhere in asia, personal driver, and never having to cook or clean again.

If you manage to curtail discretionary spending and take out your own garbage, one needs $400,000 or $300,000 to live like a prince rather than king at levels of $2000 or even ‘just’ $1,500 respectively.

Also note, Bangkok is expensive relative to the rest of Thailand. Expect living costs to decrease by more than 50% moving outside the city to a more normal Thai city.

In Summation

Generally, this is just one of those perspective failures ‘mericans have that stems from how we isolate ourselves, but that’s another rant for another day. I’m really not suggesting every retiree should just pack up and move to Vietnam at age 55, and im definitely not arguing for an even lower personal savings rate amongst Americans. What I am implying though is that maybe we should realize we’re not that bad off and that not being able to match the jones’ annual SUV purchase is actually okay. Rather, maybe taking some time to slow down, smell the roses, and look around once and awhile with a global perspective would be a good idea.