It’s a long weekend here in Bangkok and one filled with so many activities. The largest department store, Siam Paragon, reopened and the Silom Street Market was organized to help merchants who had been affected by recent events. Life was finally back to normal in the city of angels. I couldn’t just stay in and miss out on all the fun, so I went out to have some fun.

My first stop was the Silom Street Market. The roads through the main business district today was closed to traffic and turned instead into a massive walking street. I got off the skytrain and was amazed at the number of people who came out in droves. There were over a thousand stalls and over a thousand visitors. Everywhere I turned there were people. Black heads wobbled left and right. Stalls were so busy selling, some couldn’t sell their goods fast enough.

Everything you could possibly want was at Silom today. There were clothes of all styles and sizes, shoes, jewelry, house decorations, and of course the all essential food. There were so many things to see and do, you could easily get lost in the crowd. It was like Bangkok’s famous weekend market (Jatuchak) had moved to Silom. People were happy, hands filled with shopping backs and tummies full. Everyone came out to help each other recover.

My next stop was Siam and a new Ramen franchise called Chabuton owned by the Japanese winner of the TV program “TV Champion.” I loved the atmosphere the moment I went in. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but I liked the fact that it felt like I was in Japan. It was small, simple and clean, with fast and polite service. Wonderful.

The menu was simple with 7 kinds of ramen to choose from. I tried the recommended one and was not disappointed. The ramen noodle was mouth watering. Its texture was a perfect balance of chewiness, density and flavor. I could not have enough of it. It was served in a pork based soup with a bacon-like slice of pork which was intense with flavor, but slightly too salty for my taste. Dessert was green tea ice-cream. I have to say it’s one of the best green tea ice-cream I’ve ever had. It wasn’t overly creamy or overwhelmed with green tea flavor. It wasn’t too light or watery. It was perfect for me. There were even some nice chewy bits inside.

Next was Siam Paragon. The mall was filled people and shoppers didn’t have enough time to get all their shopping done by the 9pm closing time. Bakeries ran out of bread. Everyone was smiling, both the customer and the seller.

Today Bangkokians all came out to celebrate and to shop. Life was back to normal at last in the city of angels. 🙂

May 2010 has gone by so fast this year I can hardly believe it. Time seems to be flying by faster and faster the older you grow, and there never seems to be enough time to do everything I want. Soon I’ll be sixty and retired, or not, and soon I will have past the best years of my life.

What are the best years of your life?

Most often people would say its the teenage years, or your twenties. When you’re a teenager, you discuss about what you want to do, what you want to be when you grow up. In the twenties, fresh from college and full of energy, you devote yourself to work, work and more work.

When you reach the thirties, it seems to hit you like an unwanted bump on the road. For me, the thirties was more like an awakening. It has been a time of reflection, and for rediscovering what is it you want in life. A time to re-balance.

Goals and dreams previously set out and never reached had to be re-evaluated. Its either do it now, or don’t do it. Dreams sometimes get lost and forgotten amongst the zillion other responsibilities. They get pushed aside.

You find yourself on an unexpected path and realize that you’ve lived through half your life already and yet, there were still so many dreams left untouched.

Will they remain forever dreams, or can I make them into reality?

I want to look back at sixty and see the dreams become a reality. It can be little dreams, like taking care of my health, losing weight, publishing a book, or going on that trip to Africa and seeing the great Victoria falls. Taking a safari out to Kenya and watching the elegant gazelle or having a balloon ride over the Serengeti. Spending a night out in the desert surrounded by a million stars.

More important than just reaching goals, I want to “like” the person I am becoming. We all change overtime. Influenced by our environment, by our associates, we lose a little bit of ourselves, our original self, in the process. The inner child gets buried underneath all that persona.

The bump I hit at thirty was a good one. I like myself more at thirty, than I did in my twenties. I am no longer focused on what “I” want anymore. Other people now are more important. Life is more balanced with more time for my health, my life, my work, and the people around me. The inner child with the dream came alive again.

So take some time out and find that inner child. Re-balance yourself and see if you are living the life you want to live, and then start living it before its too late. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

I was having fruits tonight when popped in a funny and true story. The story is about “How I eat durians.”

Durians are large, thorn-covered and have a very distinctive odour.
If you’ve never eaten durian or don’t like it, the smell will resemble somewhat that of a rotten egg mixed with rotten cheese . However if you love eating durian, which I do, it smells just wonderfully delicious. (As long as it isn’t in an air-conditioned room.)

It is undoubtedly a one of a kind fruit and has been appropriately named “The King of Fruits.” You just have to try it at least once in your life.

I wonder who was the first human brave enough to eat this?

Anyways, the funny thing about durians is that I grew up eating them always with a knife, spoon, and fork. The creamy texture which somewhat resembles a fatty cheese like Mont D’Or , or that of a custard was always eaten scooped up on the spoon.

It was a dessert fruit, so naturally we used the dessert utensils. I always ate it that way and always thought it was the way that durians were supposed to be eaten.

One day at university, nostalgic for home and coupled with a desire to have some Durian, a group of asians (Indonesia, Malaysian and Thai) got together to break open a wholly frozen durian bought at the chinese supermarket. It wasn’t easy with its thorny husk, but we managed.

Once open, everyone set out to eat. In went all the hands to much delight, while I just sat there. I didn’t know how to eat a durian without a fork. I wasn’t joking. I realized then that we are very much the person we are depending upon how we are raised. Habits are formed growing up without us ever knowing that sometimes we are the ‘odd’ one out.

That afternoon, I learned an interesting fact: at least 90% of the people ate durians with their hands!!

What if the smell sticks to your hands? The miracle is that if you put water in the husk and wash your hands with it, the smell dissipates! Drinking water from the husk also apparently “cools” you down since Durian is considered a “hot” fruit according to Chinese medicine. The wonders of nature. “Hot” and “Cool” all in one.

Nowadays, I alternate between using my hands and my spoon…depending upon where I am.
Its actually much more fun with the hands!! How do you eat your durian? :D:D

Too much politics can give one a headache, so tonight my topic will be completely different. My topic tonight is: Rain. (And no, its not about the Korean star called “Rain.” I really mean the rain as in raindrops)

As it has been raining cats and dogs regularly for the past few days, tonight is no exception. As I sit here at my desk, I can hear the soft tapping of the rain as it hits the window pane. The tapping raindrops are intermittently disrupted by sounds of the blowing wind, and then the soft tap evolves into a gentle gush of wind.

I love all this: I love hearing the soft tapping of the rain, feeling the coolness that it brings, smelling the freshness in the air, and the momentary silence as people halt their activities. It makes me nostalgic.

For me, rain has always been associated with good memories. I spent a good part of my childhood life in Belgium where it rained for 10 months out of a year and the sky was a permanent shade of grey. It rained when I first went to the Rose Garden with Alex.

In Belgium, the rain brought with it life and at the same time a sense of calmness. My house bordered on the Foret de Soignes, which is an extensive 4,421 hectare forest on the south-eastern part of Brussels, and when it rained, I would look out of my window and see the massive trees swaying in the wind amidst the sheets of rain. A little pool of water would form in the garden and without fail, a pair of ducks would appear and spend a good amount of time paddling around. My miniature long-haired dachshund, Dyzio, would be sitting by the window, wishing he could go out to give them a good chase.

When the rain had subsided, I would sometimes go for a ride in the forest with Dyzio in a basket and the greenness of the 200 year-old Oak trees would overwhelm you. I felt like an explorer. The forest had been around since the Middle Ages. Napoleon had used oak trees from this forest to build the Boulogne flotilla intended for the invasion of England. Imaginations ran wild.

Evenings were spent watching the family of wild foxes that ventured by our fence. First would come the scouts, the male guards then finally the female and the young ones. There was an hierarchy in the wild world. The weak were protected.

I suppose, with all this reminiscence (which is a sign of me getting old) what I wanted to say is that for me, it feels good to just sit still and enjoy the moment. Soak in the wonders of nature before grumbling that it is wet, the ensuing traffic jam it causes, and the disruption to our planned trips. Rain is often seen as an obstacle rather than a good thing in this hectic world.

Forget not that rain brings with it hopes of life in the arid deserts of Africa. Without rain, there will be no life. Rain is life.

After having evacuated my apartment exactly a week ago, I returned. There was a strange and bizarre feeling today as I drove into town towards my apartment.

On the outskirts, a sense of normalcy had returned and the shopping malls were once again filled with people. However, as I got closer to my apartment, the roads were still strangely empty and the sidewalks abnormally quiet. I felt as if people had not yet fully returned to center city. My feeling was reaffirmed as I turned into my apartment. The garage was half empty and there was still an eerie calm as I walked down the corridor. My neighbors had not returned.

Eventhough, the sky train and underground resumed service today and responsible citizens had come out in droves to volunteer for the big Bangkok Cleaning Day, a sense of worry and concern still lingered in the air.

As I went about my apartment cleaning and putting things in order, electricity suddenly blacked out. I rushed to the window, wondering if there was another disruption.

I saw no disruption, no smoke, and heard no bombs.

Instead, I saw a beautiful sunset amidst the rain. (Blackouts are sometimes caused by rain in Bangkok, don’t ask me why.) Rain was pouring down on the Thonburi side of Bangkok across the river of kings. The clouds glowed a beautiful golden orange and the sun was a round circle of light. It was absolutely breathtaking.

I stood and watched it for a few minutes, here was yet another of nature’s masterpiece.

The sunset reminded me to put behind all that had happened in the past week, for tomorrow the sunrise will bring with it a new day. A new day filled with new opportunities for us to move forward and fix all the problems we have. A new day to live our life. A new day for us to experience and to love.

A new day I hope will let this strange and bizarre feeling subside as Bangkok heralds in a new dawn and a new era in its history.