A study of eyes

I'm on the phone, don't bother me now!

You want to take my picture, I'm not sure about this

Okay, I'll smile for you

I'm simply smiling, enjoying my time,
I didn't know that you were taking my picture...again!

It's the next evening, sawasdee jao again

Life in Chiang Mai

I find I'm not sleeping as well as I like, probably it's concern over the future... It's not always easy for me to enjoy and live in the present when I have worries in my future.
Then there's my view on life and my age... Years pass and we get older, and the old adage: 'all things come to those who wait' is not quite true when age limits are considered.
Yes there are age limits.
I delved into this recently online after a 79 year old pilot ditched his aircraft following what was alleged to have been and electrical failure. He died, his wife survived, she was 80!
He had been flying for three years!
Yes we can learn to fly in our 70's, but then we must know that we have many more limitations... Our decision making ability is compromised as are our reactions.

For me it is life progression that is of a concern. I have no doubt in my ability to fly an aeroplane and make good decisions, but I hope that when I get into old age I have the sense to take another pilot with me to help with the decision making process... Maybe I can avoid doing something terrible like hitting an apartment building!

Life progression would have been very different for me in this Thai society which is far more human than the one I grew up in.
For most Thais family is very important, 'family Thais' perhaps? I see many people make sacrifices for their families here.
People are more accepting of each other's characteristics, their failings, their attributes, and perhaps their deviations from the norm. This is Buddhist philosophy perhaps.

Contrast my own 'cultural' life... 'Bloody nuisance my being, the cost of everything, food, clothing, a roof over my head.
Whereas I will make sacrifices for my siblings and their children I will never do the same for my parents, and that is a huge difference between my Irish/English family ties and most Thai family ties.
School in England was good, we did arts and sciences, machine shop, woodshop, music and country dancing! It was very balanced.
School in Quebec Canada was much more polarised... Boys do this and girls do that. There was less care, less humour.
In Thailand I see happy children, social children, growing up in a culture that is very different to the one we have developed in the hard working European and North American societies.

English culture has certainly changed.
I see the old English culture sometimes through the Hong Kong Chinese immigrants to Canada, they still practice some of what the British brought to Hong Kong in the early 1900s when family was still an important part of the British culture.

In my 'culture' position and earning money has become of prime importance.
The answer to the question asked of a prospective son in law: "Are you able to keep my daughter in the manner to which she is accustomed?" has always been "No" when I have posed it to myself.
I fly aeroplanes, it's a passion, and passion has no profit, but 'profit', the ability to earn a reasonable sum of money, is important. There's almost no such thing as "love and romance" in our society.
Then there's children... These cost money, and could cost a woman her important career, at least for a while, so the idea of family has lost its importance in our society... We must import more people to make up for our lack of children to replace us in our economy as we age into retirement. Indeed retirement has to be put off!

In the 80's we were working shorter working weeks, we were going to retire earlier, we'd made our production so efficient we could enjoy time.
I started my flying club... I thought it would do well with the increased leisure time.
I was wrong, society suddenly took a turn for the worse, tending back towards slavery and perhaps the misery of Victorian workhouses where people work all hours. Offices and factories these days are more sanitary but they are still 'workhouses'.
Now people work longer hours, and they slave for their wages.
European peoples are in decline, we can't procreate enough, we're too busy working, and there are mortgages and car loans to pay.

Then there's Thailand.
They have families here with the good outweighing the bad.
I learned that daughters are still sold by some of the country people to places such as Malaysia. Isan girls are sent to Pattaya and Bangkok to go out with farang men and send money home for the new pickup truck. This is bad.
But then I see the good here where the majority of children have contented social upbringings.
It's difficult to immigrate to Thailand, they have enough population renewal of their own.
Perhaps as progress occurs Thailand can escape the serious misjudgements European and North American societies have made.

I have accepted the loneliness of my position in Canada... I miss people dropping by for tea as they did in England, the social interaction and friendliness of an old English culture.
Vancouver is a place of transitory people, no single prime culture, but many different peoples slightly suspicious of each other, and always trying to comply with some sort of media promoted idea of who they should be. Same same is comfortable, being different isn't.
I'm different!
But then some recognise this and do indeed come around to the flying school for tea, biscuits, and conversation from time to time.
Few have seen my apartment, and I'm not proud of it either... I need a better place!
Across the road I had a bigger apartment and I could have the occasional party and I did.
Now I live in an equivalent to the bedsit I lived a miserable existence in in Weybridge... It's got to change.
We are inspired by the places we live, and so we should live in pleasant places and be better people.

I am in Thailand, I love it here, I'm inspired.

In Honour of the King's 84th Birthday, today 5th December

On Saturday there was a parade from Tapae Gate northwards for a couple of miles to a field where festivites continued.
I could have published a lot more photos of this event which was a lot of fun for everyone.

People gather to parade in honour of the King's Birthday

Everyone likes posing with ladyboys
This sort of thing would not be permitted in the society they represent
A 'gay' son would still have to marry and father children, it's a low tolerance religion.

One woman was from Ottawa, the other from Kelowna
Neither was talkative. There were only a handful of Canadians

The Chinese girl in the blue and silver chinese dress is from Shijiazhuang where I used to work. She spoke excellent English and we had a nice conversation. There were a few Mainland China girls there, they teach Mandarin in Chiang Mai.
Very friendly and pleasant.

Buddhist society is accepting and tolerant over and above any other religion or philosophy.
Thais enjoy life, and why not?

Vietnamese costume, very nice

I didn't see anyone want to pose with the bikerboys!


There were lots of other nationalities, a lot of Brits and Americans
Some Americans were there in their Menonite frumpy dresses with
small black headscarves... Long live Buddhism!
Scotland had it's own line up, they didn't want to be associated with
the United Kingdom!

"I'm proud of you son"

I love the fact that Lanna culture is maintained here.
Thai's maintain their identity in this way.

Many Nationalities were in the parade


The Tiger Moth flew overhead as the parade progressed

Smiles were everywhere. People enjoy parades and celebrating



The balloon was up at the end of the parade

It was a long walk back to John's Place where I'd left the motorcycle...
I had a quick Schweppes Manao (lemon/lime ade) then was off to join Jon
(Katana) for a pizza.

Chiang Mai by Thai

Two Captains are needed for Nok Mini Airlines for 6 month contracts

Life in Chiang Mai

Here I am back in the apartment...
Yesterday I swept and cleaned the floor, I've still got to tidy the place up and decide what comes what stays with twelve days left in Thailand and many of them are potentially busy.
With all this busy-ness why am I going back to a place deep in winter with little prospect of making any real money?
My business here is not making money either, but it's relatively cheap to live in Thailand, and one finds oneself going around with a smile... What's this all about?

We grow up learning to conform, to put up with it, and to comply with a way of life... There's a movie on the television (HBO) about this as I write, set in 'Victorian' America with the participants living their sham lives obediently conforming to the strict codes of the day.
In many ways this was simple, everything was set up and compliance was contentment, though the movie decries this idea as we do looking from the vantage of our modern lives.

For me, a child of the fifties and sixties, while brought up with some of these Victorian ideals, modified by time and by wars, this has been a life of irony and paradox.
They say the pill changed everything!
But then there's political correctness, and this Canadian idea of positive discrimination. Suddenly the world changed and I grew up in the middle of all this.

Asia did not change in the way the west did.
Many of the things we learned as children are still true here while they became false in our own 'cultures'.

One can find contentment in Thailand.
It's hard to let go of this way of life and go back to the struggle.
Irony and paradox which has led to confusion is replaced by serendipity.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I spent a lot of time on this computer. I'd taken over sixty pictures of the lunar eclipse and these needed 'processing', then I put together all of the pictures for four pages of reports on the flight from Pattaya up into the north last week.
I'll write this up and post it on the website shortly.

I will post the four pages as I update them...

Royal Flora

Come on! Have a sense of humour :)
















There's a warmth in teakwood




More pretty girls; on floats

The task

What am I doing?
This website has become an obligation, a job of work, and yet unpaid.
As has become a habit, I do something for nothing but the satisfaction of having done it, mai ben rai, but now I must consider my return to Canada next week and the realisation I won't be able to pay February's rent if I don't do something for work as soon as I get back... It's a worry as I must complete another flight test to renew the rating that earns my pitance! (More money out!).
This at a time when the weather is likely to be most foul and customers have already spent too much money on Christmas and the New Year. Then again working for flying schools pays a month to six weeks after the flying has been done... 'Kept me awake a bit last night... Then in the depth of my sleep I had a motorcycle accident and woke up with a start!
I suppose that after my accident in Bali I worry about riding a motorcycle and so worry is associated in one's dreams in the same way.

I could easily live out my days here in Thailand, but visa issues let alone indigence put paid to that idea... We can but dream (a nice dream) I suppose.

Friday's journey

Just before lunchtime I got on the motorcycle and rode to Royal Flora at Rachaphruek which opened again this year on the 14th December.
I went to the previous show a few years ago and it was brilliant then.

I arrived hungry, and went to the foodcourt before the entrance; had fish noodle soup, and a fruit juice.
As with everywhere here you can eat well on a couple of dollars.

The entry to the show cost 200 Baht, and a ride on the Giant Flora Wheel is 120 Baht... Both as a package cost me 280 Baht.
This is excellent value for money, especially as you will often get free gifts from the exhibitors.

Royal Flora is not only a flower show, it's a lot more. There's a lot to see and experience here and in the seven hours I was on the ground I saw about 30% of it! I'll have to go back I suppose.

It's like an Expo: there are gardens, and pavilions.
Many countries are represented and some of these pavilion/gardens were very nice to see.

The first pavilion I entered was about obtaining Ground Water for consumption and irrigation. There were demonstrational videos played on flat screen televisions as one walked through a simulation of being underground.
At then end I was given a bottle of their clean drinking 'ground' water.

With the limited space on this page I can not fully do justice to this fantastic show by posting all of the pictures I have, I have had to be selective. Here I attempt to give you the flavour of the place.
This has not been half done by the Thais; it is a feast for the eyes.

Thai people are very friendly and are always out to have fun. They never forget that life is about living.

The brightness of smiles here as people took lots of pictures of each other in the many beautiful settings was good to see.
Life is good if one lives in the present and enjoys the good things that surround us.

KASET is the agricultural 'airforce' of Thailand, responsible for rain making and flying in support of agricultural operations.
Not that Thailand needs much rain at the moment with it's reservoirs full, and the flooding between Nakhon Sawan and the sea south of Bangkok.

I saw some of the national pavilions; I need another day or two to see them all. As I wrote, this show is not half done, there's a lot to see and enjoy.

Both Thai Air Asia and Bangkok Airways had their own garden exhibits.

I've seen this somewhere before.

The Indian Garden was across the road from Canada.
I suppose there is no architecture that can represent Canada like distinctive architecture does for old nations.

I came across a radio controlled blimp operated by www.thaisky-digital.com and they knew many people I did and had even looked at my website from time to time!
Flying is a small world even if the aircraft are smaller.

The Sun was setting as I joined the queue to ride on the wheel... I'm somewhat of an unusual traveller here in Thailand: kon dee-o, alone! So a family was asked if I could join them in the gondola for the two rotations we got for our tickets.
It's well worth buying a ticket for the ride as you can get some brilliant aerial pictures.

A view from the wheel

I walked into the Vietnam Garden with it's house dedicated to Ho Chi Minh...

Strangely I am still attracted by Vietnam; it's a place I need to explore more at some future time.

I stopped on my walk to take some pictures of the wat like building in the fading light. Another photographer there showed me how he used a graduated filter to bring the sky brightness in line with the subject. The heading picture was taken using his filter.

There was music to be heard nearby and this was at the extensive Rubber Plantation exhibit.
Here I was given a rubber key fob and chain and invited to write a message to the King on a gold leaf and then hang it with other such leaves on a tree. "Thank you for your life's work for Thailand" "This is a wonderful country".

The wheel

I walked to the wat building... There were no Buddha images inside and so it is not a wat, but of course it is still a stylish building.

As I arrived by the pond a light show began projecting images on an artificial mountain and on to water that was sprayed to form fans. The blue character is an image projected onto one of these water fans.
Dancers took to the watery stage and danced in flower costumes similar to the cartoon characters created to represent this show.
Then there were fireworks.

After the light show I walked down the hill to see the parade along the avenue from the wat.
The blimp flew low overhead to film the events from above.
There are many more things to see at Royal Flora... Among them is a large pavilion stocked with many kinds of orchids. This is a working garden establishment, it's an important place for horticulturalists to visit, even when the Royal Flora show has finished.

Airport cat at Nok

On Saturday I spent many hours fitting a new elastomer pile to the Katana's nose leg at Nok Airfield. It was a step back in time for me to a time when I did aircraft maintenance...
The job wasn't finished however and so I went to the airfield again on Sunday to fit the scat hose for the carb heat... This is in a really awkward position!
In the evening I was invited for dinner with Koi and his family, then I ended up at John's Place for a small Tiger beer followed by a banana milk shake!

So endeth my weekend.
This has taken me over 3 hours to edit the pictures and write... You're welcome.

Travelling

Waterfall on Doi Suthep

Intermission


Note: "(see AFM)" it could be important

Circuits in the DA40 TDi

Wednesday...

...was going to be my last day of renting the motorcycle and so I took the opportunity to ride up Doi Suthep and go to the Wat.
I rode up the mountain, took in the views from outside the temple and then bought my lotus flower, incense, and candles (10 Baht).
I then walked three times around the Chedi... A passing monk doing likewise gave me a prayer sheet, this was no good for me as can't read Thai, mai dee. One needs no written prayers to walk with, only good thoughts.

I was hungry but I'd determined to go to the Wat first, climb the many steps, and do my three turns before I ate.
I ate in a Thai open food place, noodles soup and cha manao yen (ice lemon tea).

Thailand is a country of serendipity: it's always happening... We ran out of petrol in the MGB the other day... But we were being tailed by a chap I knew who makes teak models, he lives nearby in Saraphi, and was delivering a model of an MGB GT to someone when he saw a real MGB on the road... He gave us a tow to the petrol station!
I knew him from when I had bought a Hawker Hunter model from him... It was a beautiful model, but I only had it a short time as I ran into Boz at Pattaya Eastern and Boz was ex RAF and had owned a Hunter himself. How could one keep a model however beautiful when it meant so much more to someone else. I gave it to him.

And so it was that I rode my motorcycle down the mountain and took in the viewpoints on the way... And there I met someone I did not expect to see. Serendipity.

Another day

I rented the motorcycle for another day (Thursday) even though I was scheduled to fly to Bangkok in the evening.
In the morning I went to Sri Phat to have my arm worked over by the therapist one last time, and to pay my bill.
I dropped the motorcyle off in the afternoon and walked down Loi Kroh road and across the iron bridge to catch the blue Song Taew back to Nonghoi. I stopped on the way for a cup of tea with An.

It's sad to pack and to leave a place where I am so at home and know I won't be back for quite a while...

My journey to Bangkok and beyond was horrible...
The board showed all flights from/to Suvarnabhumi were delayed. I got there 45 minutes late, then there was trouble with the baggage system, and then there was choc a bloc parking outside the terminal and my 'car' was delayed!
At this time of the year cars are hard to find, Maneeda, always helpful, managed to get me a pick-up truck for 1,200 Baht a day.

For an early start in the morning I'd booked a hotel in Sri Racha close to Bang Phra and so I had a long drive. I am also suffering from a bad cold, mai sabai mak mak.
I came off the motorway at the second Bang Phra exit thinking I would route around the south side of Bang Phra reservoir... Bad idea that was!
The road was mostly unpaved and I worried in the depth of night whether it would suddenly end and I'd have to double back.
Along this long winding journey I passed a house that was lit with loads of Christmas lights and decorations! Who's going to see them?
Finally I broke out onto Sukhumvit Road and turned left...
I couldn't find the hotel... I asked and was misled, then I finally thought I'll go to the Park Hotel and stay there, so a left turn and go around the block and back to it... That left turn led to the hotel I was booked in!

It was 01:00 I finally got to bed and I was to meet Oliver at 08:30 to fly the CT-SW from Bang Phra to do short field landings at Pattaya-Eastern (350 metres).

Up in the CT

Breakfast was two fried eggs with tomato, and a couple of slices of toast with marmalade washed down with Ovaltine...
I'm tired these days, not enough restful sleep, but I was out at Bang Phra and ready to go within minutes of my scheduled time.
Off we went in the CT-SW to repeat stalls, slips, and steep turns before doing 7 circuits at Pattaya-Eastern (350 metres long).
We stopped for an hour and then did some more circuits including simulating engine failures downwind before returning to Bang Phra.
Oliver has some homework now, the CT has a variable pitch propeller and so he has to develop a performance table for it.
There's been some mis-information given on the use of VP props, if this engine was something less robust like a Lycoming or Continental it would be even more important to use the variable pitch propeller correctly.

Back at Bang Phra Khun Worawoot asked me to fly with him in the DA40 TDi.
This was my first flight in this type and it was interesting to compare it with the DA40-180 I am used to.

My day was done and so I drove to Jomtien to be in time for roast duck at Gill and Alasdair's.

I am suffering a rotten cold, it's my body reacting to having to leave Thailand and go somewhere less comfortable!
So sleeping hasn't been easy for me lately.

The latest LAA Magazine has an article on the EuroFox in it and this was an interesting read... For the UK they have increased the size of the fin and rudder to improve stability...
On Saturday afternoon I experimented with putting gap strips between the fin and rudder and between the tailplanes and elevators. I did this once with a KitFox II and this gave us much better elevator authority.
A gap strip is usually fabric in a 'S' from the top of the tailplane to the bottom leading edge of the elevator hich stops air flowing through the gap and therefore all of the airflow is used for control authority.
The gap strip between the fin and rudder should make the aeroplane a little easier to coordinate in normal flight.
I did 18 circuits with Alex in the EuroFox on Saturday afternoon but we'd need to take the gap strips out to make a comparison within a short time.

Saturday evening there was a party at Pattaya-Eastern with Jim and Tiki baking lots of pizzas, and everything rounding off with Gill's Trifle.

I slept well, Christmas eve through to Christmas day, got up and made my porridge at a leisurely 09:00, I really slept in!
Later there were croissants, salmon, and marmalade...
Gill and Alasdair had Champagne on the beach, but it was day-VFR for me and no drink until later...

We had a wander to Eastern and then to Pattaya Airpark...
There were four cylinders and pistons from a Cessna 150's O-200 engine that had failed a compression test 400 hours since new!
These had been replaced with new...
When I ran O-200s I too saw low compressions about 400 hours after overhaul or top overhaul, but then they come right back up.
At the most you should hone the cylinders again, and/or bed the valves in again... Replacement is not necessary!
I've told them to send the cylinders to me in Canada, I reckon they're perfectly alright.
We sealed the deal over Sake and so I drank during Day VFR...

Lunch for me was toasted cheese and onion sandwiches and I've eaten nothing since... It's nearly midnight now.
I drove the pickup truck back to Lat Krabang and took the train from the airport to Bangkok and found my hotel, not without some difficulty!

Time stamp on this shot 01:30z as we taxy out at Suvarnabhumi



Time stamp on this shot 17:05z as we taxy in at Vancouver

Monday morning began with a surprise when daylight showed classic old steam locomotives below my 19th floor room at the Eastin Hotel.
I went down to the swimming pool to get the lower angle pictures shown here. Later I would walk down to the rail works and ask if I could look around... But no go! I'll have to find someone in the know one day.

The internet was not reliable in my room, either I could not connect, or it showed my time had run out! With some important transactions to do I had to walk my laptop to the Lobby to use the Wifi!

Continental O-200 Cylinders

Once upon a time I was disappointed when my new O-200 cylinders suddenly showed a compression problem at around 400 hours, but this'problem' didn't last... 50 hours later the compressions were right back up.
I seems the same has happened to a set of cylinders in Thailand and these have all been replaced... Ridiculous! At worse you hone the bores again and/or reseat the valves and off you go again... So 'money where my mouth is', these cylinders and pistons are coming here. If anyone is interested in them let me know.

Traipsing around Bangkok

I walked a lot in Bangkok on Monday, 'found my way to Central Plaza to have brunch with Pakorn... I can walk for hours on an empty stomach thinking about what I should eat... Walking and running on empty seems to work well with this body of mine!
Back in the room in the afternoon and then out to dinner with Norm and Carol (Round the Worlder's) and a chap from Boston.
I took the Skytrain back, so far as Phaya Thai station and took the long walk from there to the hotel.
My legs are still sore and my left foot blistered from all the walking... But walking's benefits outweigh the downsides for me.

Tuesday was the longest day for me, my flight took off at just after 08:50am from Bangkok and landed at just after 09:00am the same day at Vancouver with a change at Tokyo - Narita. That's less than 15 hours enroute, a record for me.
I was up early and out at 05:30 for a taxi ride to the airport. I could have taken the airport Skytrain and been a few minutes later...
The 767 wasn't anywhere near its full capacity for the leg to Tokyo, but the Vancouver bound plane was full.
Enroute there was a good tailwind and so the flight time to Vancouver was a little over 8 hours.

On these flights I watched Japanese movies.

The first one was "My S.O. Has Depression" and is about a young married couple and how the young wife dealt with her new husband's illness. It was very good. I'm not sure whether this was an ideal or a norm in Japanese society, but the wife stuck by her husband through all of this trouble as she should according to the vows she made at her wedding.
This sort of loyalty is perhaps lacking here in Canada, and I'm as guilty as anyone else in this regard since I wouldn't put a woman through this sort of trouble, and I'm trouble I know!
Certainly I have met few women in my own life as strong as this Japanese woman's character, sweet and innocent as she was, to support another person through difficulty.
For most people, priority in this North American 'culture' is position and income
I allude to Asian 'Family' closeness somewhat on here, it's totally different to my own experience of disparate family life. It's why Thais say "kon dee-o" to me with such surprise. It would be extremely rare for a Thai to go into hospital without a family member or friend in support.

The second film was "The Legacy Of The Sun" which was centred around Japanese schoolgirls being used at the end of the war in Japan.
Like the Germans, the Japanese used children to replace the labour of the men they sent off to die for the Emperor.
The film is a tragedy as 19 of these girls commit suicide as their contribution to Japan's future!
It's a present day - past times movie with elderly people relating their times as young adults and children.
I like these films because they are real stories, written with emotive humanity as works of art rather than 'blockbuster - gimmick - pap' movies made for the box office.
I also saw the 'Cowboys and Aliens' movie...

I am sure my father has a story to tell in the same time period as the 'Legacy Of The Sun', he was in SE Asia and fought the Japanese in Malaya, Thailand, and Burma, he would have been 20 at the end of 1945. I remember his photo albums, I was more interested in the aeroplane pictures of course especially the images of Japanese surrender aircraft (a white cross painted over the Rising Sun, or it being painted over in green).
In our culture we tend to look at things from the outside. Factual perhaps, certainly visually spectacular, but we don't always go into the hearts of the participants in the way the above two Japanese films did. I think that this is the big difference between films made by European and Asian cultures, and those made by culture lacking Hollywood. I suppose the former are made for their art and the latter for their profit.
We all need to look at smaller films as often as possible to see humanity and to enforce our ability to see through the pap crap we're fed from the big media companies.

Film over...

Like at Bangkok I heard the announcement of "baggage delays" at Vancouver Airport, what?
I paid the $8.50 fare for the Skytrain which is over 800% more than taking the Bangkok Airport Skytrain, and and about $2 more than the taxi fare to Suvarnabhumi!

It didn't take long to get back to Ladner on the 601 bus, but it's a nuisance having baggage.
I made it back, unloaded, and went to Boundary Bay in the MX5 to have lunch.

I knew that I would really feel the quietness and solitude of this place Ladner. Life is very different here to Thailand and it's always stressful leaving a place you really want to be for a place that's alright, but which has cost my heart so much.
I gave my heart to no-one in Thailand (nor my body either!), but it is a content heart living there.
Excuse me if you think I write too much personal stuff on here, but this is a travel 'b'log and the personal is an important component of anyone's experience in travel.

This ends this 'Travels In Thailand' episode, number 14, it's been fun, it's been heartful, tearful even, but I hope for another one.