Its a Countdown

1 more day to an official 2 weeks vacation.

:)
2 more days to Chiang Mai and Pai.
:) :)
10 more days of not sleeping on my own bed.
:)
11 more days to be back in my own house.
:) :):)
11 more days to sleep on my own bed.
:):):):)
11 more days to see families and friends (whether they like it or not)
:):):):):)
12 more days to see my cats again.
:):):):):)

Day 1: Welcome to the blogging world, Rachie.

What is Loi Kratong?

Loi Kratong is a Thai festival that is held on the full moon of the 12th month of the Thai Calendar. Since last night the moon was full and now is the 12th month, we (Nan, Rose, Jean, Leon and I) celebrated.

Full moon over Chao Phraya River

To celebrate, we took a sky train from Chongnonsi station to Saphan Thaksin. There were so many people on Saphan Thaksin and we had to queue for ferry to Memorial Bridge (Saphan Poot). The ferry was sardine packed, but we got a good view of the busy rivers with the decorated boats.

Busy Memorial Bridge Pier

Rama VIII Bridge from Suan Santichaiprakarn Park

We stopped at the Memorial Bridge pier, and walked across and back of the bridge with view of Wat Arun on the background.

Wat Arun from Memorial Bridge

From the bridge, we took a 40 baht tuk tuk to infamous Khao San Road. We walked through the road with banana roti, spring rolls and fruits in hand. Nice place for people-watching activities.

Lively Khao San Road

We walked from Khao San Road to Soi Rambuttri to Phra Arthit Road to Suan Santichaiprakarn Park. This is the happening place for Loi Kratong festival with people, food and live music.

Brightly lighted Suan Santichaiprakarn Park

According to Nan and Rose, my 'expert' on all things Thai, the Loi Kratong festival is to thank the river for providing water and to ask for the river forgiveness for throwing rubbish into them. The accuracy of this information is arguable.

'Loi' mean float. 'Kratong' mean decorated raft. Kratong was made of banana tree trunk and decorated with flowers, incense sticks and candles. Some of them were made of Styrofoam and flour.

Kratong on sale

We selected and bought four flour made kratongs for fishes to eat them. We lighted the candles and put some coins for good luck.

Our kratongs with candles and coins

We queued and passed our kratongs to the kratong guys. Kratong guys have long pole where he put the kratongs at the end of it, lower it down to the river and let the kratongs float in the river.

Kratong guy with long pole

We sit here for a while watching people cerebrating and enjoying the festivity.

The flight of a Lantern

We end the celebration with a trip to Bangkok Chinatown in Yaowarat Road for some sweet desserts.

Chinatown own durian and bo loi nam king

All I can say is "Loi Kratong's rock".

In Memoriam: Jeremy Yap

My colleague, Jeremy Yap, passed away this morning Monday Nov 12, 2007 at 2.00am.

We have been working, on and off, since year 2001. A few weeks ago I was informed that he is not well and need to have heart operation. We have planned to visit him when I went back to Malaysia last weekend, but it was not meant to happen.

We are not close, but I was surprised by his passing as he looks healthy all this time. You can never tell about people from the outside. My condolences go out to his families and friends.

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum

While reading this blog please remember that:
Forum is airport
Funnier is dangerous
Hate is hate.

What I really hate? I hate to do my claim and I have not submitted my claim since July this year. I also hate the waiting time in the forum. I will wait until last possible moment to get to the forum to ensure I will have as little waiting time as possible. Today, I have to do both with flight scheduled at 9.00pm.

My fake cats watching me do my claims while my real cats in the boarding.

I spent 6 hours from 11.00am to 5.00pm submitting my claims. 2 hours searching for receipts, 1 hour on denial that I have to submit my claim, 1 hour swearing to myself for not doing it sooner like yesterday and 2 hours actual keying-in the claim in the system.

After that I cleaned up the claim's war zone, showered and prepared to leave the house for my mom place. I managed to get out from the door at 5.40pm. On the way, I had to detour to my colleague house to drop my claim forms so that it can be submitted to finance. By the time I get to my mom house it was already 6.15pm.

Since I did not have lunch and the airline food will be S.U.C.K., I ate at my mom place while helping with my sister with her final year thesis. Since the time taken to get to the forum from my mom house is about 45 to 60 minutes (depending on the speed), I was planning to leave the house at 7.00pm. That time will enable me to get to the forum by 8pm for the 9pm flight's check in. That way I don't have to wait long for the flight. As usual, plan and actual is two different things. By the time I began my journey, it was already 7.15pm.

So, I have too and was speeding with my sisters and my mom in the car to the forum. I was doing well at 120km to 140km until about 10 minutes to the forum when the car starts pulling to the left. What is the worst that can happen while you speeding? Flat tire. Front left tire. That was what happens. Fortunately the car did not flip on high speed. Lucky us.

Here I was, late for my flight and stranded on the highway. What could make it funnier? There is no spare tire in the car. The spare tire was used to replace the front right tire when it goes flat 2 days ago.

What to do now? The sensible things. Call my brother to bring another tire from my sister car, get a taxi to the forum and ditch my mom and my sisters in the middle of highway. That was what I did and I managed to get to the forum with barely enough time for check in.

Wise cat say what?

For those who wonder, my brother saved the day and got my mom, sisters and car back home safely. What is funniest? My brother and sister got stung on the face by caterpillars while changing the tire. Right now their faces are swollen.

What a day. Good nite.

Drained