Back to Blogging

It has been a very long time since I’ve blogged.  By the evidence of my last blog post about sweet potatoes I buy on the street you may have figured out that no matter where you are in the world, you pretty much have to settle into some routine.   I have gotten over my initial phase of wanting to try everything just to try it and going out of the way to do things I normally wouldn’t do because I want to establish a normal routine and by normal routine I mean by physical activity, rest, and social activities.

Things I’ve Done since Last Blog Entry

I found a very cool bike path to Lumpini Park which has almost no pedestrian or motosai  (scooters, motorcycles)  traffic.  It is actually an actual bike lane and it travels in between the express way and another busy road.  It goes for about 1.5 miles then there is this cool skywalk bikepath, which is made of that hard tenniscourt material and again is devoid of motorized traffic although there are sometimes soccer games with kids.  The skywalk travels in between and over a residential neighborhood and ends up 1/8 of a mile from Lumpini park.   I found a full outdoor basketball court in Lumpini Park which motivated me to buy a basketball so I can ride bike to the park and shoot hoops which I am woefully awful at, but nobody in Thailand will care.  It is something I can do for hours because it gets addicting.

Buying a Bike at Big C

I blogged a while back about the Thai answer to K-Mart or Target called Big C.  I kind of ranted about how cheap Big C was but I went there of all places and bought a bicycle.  The bikes ranged from 1250 baht (~$35) to 5000 ($150) and for some reason I bought one of the double spring mountain bikes instead of the basket street bikes.   I bought a 4,000 baht bike which has to weigh 60 pounds.  It is cheaply made and on the ride back home, I actually wrenched the handlebars off and almost fell off the bike.  When I got back I put the little wire lock that wouldn’t last 5 minutes in San Francisco in between the bikes’ back tire and frame so nobody can ride off with it.   It’s sitting in the parking garage right in front of the security guards so hopefully it will not get stolen.  I have been used to a very nice and light Specialized Sirrus Comp which I can already tell will be sorely missed although I don’t see myself going very far, at least yet…

Got on Channel  7 Thai News Broadcast!

I ran to Lumpini Park which I planned to workout at the gym which is there but as always I got caught up in the park’s main attractions, the monitor lizards.  The park is so laid back, peaceful and relaxing it’s hard to not stop and rest.   I started talking to a Brit who was videoing the monitors and we got to chatting.   He was vacationing in Bangkok and he caught a story on BBC world news about the monitors in the park so he made a trip to visit them.  Next thing we know, we see a Thai news team given away by the pretty reporter with the microphone and the camera man with the giant pro camera.  We chat with them and they want to interview the British guy, Jeremy and they do.  As we were walking away they videos walking down the street which is what was on the news.   I turned on channel 7 and started watching and continued for 2 hours and didn’t see myself on the news.  I found out there were 2 channel 7′s and I didn’t know which one was the correct one.  A couple hours later I received an email from Jeremy telling me we were on the news.  Hopefully he’ll email the video to me so I can post it.

Taking Time Off: Also a Trip to Vietnam

My good friend Jae who owns the fitness studio I trained at for the past 4 years is visiting from San Francisco.   This reminds me, we have to get a Vietnam visa before we can go.  We got very cheap tickets on AirAsia.com which amount to only $75 round trip from Bangkok to Saigon and back to Bangkok from Hanoi.  How we’re getting from Saigon to Hanoi is probably another cheap flight.   I’m supposed to be gone from September 15th through the 23rd although I may want to visit Hong Kong which is one of my favorite cities and is close to Hanoi.  This trip will give me much needed time off from the keyboard but also some great pictures and videos for future blog posts.   You can read about the primary reason why I haven’t been blogging as much about living in Bangkok and traveling in Southeast Asia here: AskTheTrainer Blog

Eat your Greens

When I came to Thailand for the first time I saw the green these ground green fruits on street stands.  There are so many delicious fruits on the street stands ( which I will blog about later) that I never bothered to ask what the fruits were.  Even if I asked what they were, I would no doubt hear a Thai phrase which I couldn’t understand anyway.

Well it turns out, these green fruits about the size of small apples are one of the most common fruits in America, they just look different.  In Bangkok they taste a little different.  They have a wide variety of tastes, some sweet, some tart and they always seem to be ripe.

Green Juice ?

The juice is sold more often on the streets of Bangkok than the fruit.  The juice sometimes is very sweet and sometimes has a little tang to it.  It is sold in containers of around 400ml for 20 baht (58 cents) and 40 baht on the street, usually chilled.  It is quite refreshing on a hot humid day walking down the streets of Bangkok.

What exactly is this Tasty Green Fruit

I figured if I was going to blog about something as mundane as a normal household fruit for every American I would leave it a mystery for a bit.  The last hint about this fruit and juice is, the juice can kill you!

Have you figured out what this mystery green fruit is yet?

Oranges!

Balancing the Good & the Bad

One of the reasons I chose Bangkok, Thailand to have less stress.  I was sick of running around for appointments and working more to pay for the extra cost of living of San Francisco.  I was thinking Tokyo or Hong Kong but in those cases I would have to train clients or teach English to pay the rent and bills which adds stress.

The first month it felt great to have such a low stress level.  I was really being a lazy bum sleeping for 10+  hours a day and not really doing much.  During this second month, I actually became stressed from not having any stress to deal with.

I remember back in psychology 101 in college we talked about eustress (positive stress) and (negative stress) distress.  This is the first time of my life that I actually felt the lack of eustress was causing distress.

I always have more website work to do, but it seems like if I don’t have something to do, i.e. a training session at 5pm, I don’t feel any pressure to work on the website at all when I would work on it for 3-5 hours really hard before I had to go in for a training session.  As a lifelong procrastinator this doesn’t come as a big surprise.

Enrolling in my Thai language class has caused a little bit of eustress as does having to leave the country to obtain my student (ED) visa.  I think establishing a fitness goal and exercising more would be a good way to add some positive stress to my life as an expat here in Thailand but I’m looking for something new????

Stress Levels are Exponential

I truly believe that a change in stress levels is exponential.  Even though I would rate my stress level from working and living in SoMa in San Francisco a 6 out of 10 I think my stress levels are incredibly lower being a webmaster of my own website in Thailand.

Living here so far I would rate my stress level 3 out of 10 at the very highest.   Six is twice that of 3 but it literally feels like I have 1,000 times less stress living over here.  I believe that increased stress levels can have great effects on people.

RIP David Carradine

I just heard the news that famous actor David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok hotel.  Preliminary reports suggest he hung himself in a closet.  I remember him from the Kung Fu series as well as kill Bill 2 as well as a bunch of B movies.

Why someone would consider suicide is a great mystery but it obviously has to do with one form of stress or another.  Someone who has all the money in the world like Carradine’s stress has to be different than the average Joe which makes it anyone’s guess what lead him to kill himself.  I think there is a 0% chance that he hung himself because of high stress levels from being in Bangkok Thailand though.