Archive for June, 2008

In the months of May and June, a lot of durian lovers are looking forward to tasting their favoriate fruits. Durian is an exotic fruit that grows in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. It has an outstanding spiky rind and pungent fragrance. Wiith its lush yellow flesh, durian has sweet taste and melt-in mouth texture when it’s rippen.

Even though it is praised as the king of fruits, many people do not care much for it. Every summer in Thailand you expect to see a large crowd gathering around a cart full of durians, vying for the best price. At the same time, other pedestrain scurry past, squeezing thier nose or turning their face away for they can’t stand the obnoxious odour of durian. Durian is much loved in Thailand but is not tolerated in most hotels, on airline, or in a subway. A sign of ‘No durian allowed’ can be seen in a place where an air-conditioning is operating.

My very first time tasting durian was not a memorable one. My aunt who assumed that every nephew and niece of hers must have liked this fruit, she always bought some home for all of us. Being a favorite niece, I was given a bigger chunk of rippen durian to try first. It was so bitter that I threw up after the first bite. I hadn’t touched it again until I grew up. Still durian has never been my favorite fruit. I might have a bite here and there but will never spend money buying it for myself. My sister, on the other hand, loves it. She prefers the hard or not too ripe one, though.

I just had a short conversation with my mother a few minutes ago and learnt a little bit more about my family. My great grandma was born and raised in Siam (old name for Thailand) not China as I thought. She and her husband came to visit their son once when my mother young so it was hard for my mother to remember anything about them. She only knew their faces and names; that was all.  I’m not certain if it was a Thai culture or just my family traditional, children were not allowed to ask too many questions no matter how curious they were. 

Original pictures location: http:wilkipedia

My grandma’s ancestors were one of the earlier ethnic groups occupying Burma called ‘Mon’.  Since Siam and Burma fought like cats and dogs, the winner would always capture the loser’s population and herd them to the capital.  The commoners would automatically become the slaves and the noblemen would live comfortably in their new country.  Some might even be granted a position in a government. 

Because of the bellicose situation, my grandma’s ancestors were brought to Siam. They served under a protection of the Royal families from that point on and never went back to Burma.  I believe it’s called under “Royal Decrees”.  Grandma said that her ancestors had never been slaves. In my opinion, to be under a control of other people was not much different than being the slaves.  Luckily, Siam abolished the slavery a few centuries ago during King Rama V.  Whether or not my ancestors had ever been the slaves, now we are all free in certain aspects.

I asked my mother how grandma and grandpa met; she said her dad’s sister introduced them.  My great aunt (grandpa’s sister) happened to work in a palace where grandma grew up so these two women knew each other all of their lives.  My grand-parents married and had several children.  The first couple of children were all boys; she wanted badly to have a girl. For some reasons, it didn’t happen.  One day she heard that a Chinese couple just had a baby and they were not thrilled to see a baby girl.  They had nothing to do with her so my grandma was excited to welcome this little baby girl in to her life. 

Every Chinese people in the old days preferred their oldest child to be a boy because he would take a responsibility in a family business, carry on a family name, take care of his parents, and bring in a wife after he got married. They believed that having a girl was a lost cause; she would soon marry and became a member of her husband’s family. A mind-set like this should be abandoned. A baby can’t choose her own gender; it was not her fault to be born a girl.  I can’t help being upset just to think about it. That was a reason the Chinese couple wanted to rid their baby, my adopted aunt.  Less than a year after my Chinese aunt came to our family, grandma gave birth to her first biological daughter.  Two years later, my mother was born followed by my youngest aunt.

Our family was rather big but it was typical back then.  Grandpa was a teacher while grandma was a housewife. During the Manhattan Project in 1945, my grandpa passed away leaving all children and his wife behind.  Life at that time must have been very harsh for a big family like this. Two of my uncles, the oldest and the youngest, were killed by a bomb when Japan invaded Siam. My mother said that the sound of an emergency warning was heard every day. When it occurred, people would abandon whatever they were doing at that moment to seek for shelters.  Smokes and the voices of wounded people could be heard; it was horrific memories for my mother. Her two brothers ran as soon as they heard the warning sound; unfortunately, they were not quick enough. The impact from the bomb nearby caused them to fall down from the bridge and died in an instance.

My grandma was rather myterious and didn’t like to talk about herself. No matter how much I tried to get it out of her or the tricks I pulled, she declined to reveal anything. That really made me be more curious so I always called her Princess just to tick her off.  My grandma’s silence didn’t stop me from getting a story out of my mother and my aunt but they could only tell me what they knew from a horse’s mouth.

I should start writing something about Thai people or Thailand in general due to my blog’s name. To be blunt with you, I didn’t dream of  getting any comments from anyone other than those whom I asked or invited to read my writing.  I guess I was wrong.  In that case, I must thank you for checking my blog and left me your comments.  I promise to add some Thai pieces here and there. I can only write about a small part of Thailand that I know and one thing I will not do is to trash my country or my people.  I am proud to be Thai and I love my motherland so here we go my first Thai article. It definitely has to be about my family before I can even think of writing about something else.

My great grand-father (Ah-Kong) was originally from Sichuan province, the mainland China, and was a part of an ethnic group called ‘Tai’ meaning ‘free’.  The corruption of the Qing Dynasty and the massive population increase in China, along with very high taxes, caused many men to leave China for Thailand in search of work. When exactly he arrived in Thailand was unknown to me since the story had never been told or mentioned.  According to my calculation, I assume it must have been between 1810- 1850.

**Original picture location: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_peoples **

Early Chinese immigration consisted almost entirely of Chinese men who married Thai women and my great grandfather was not exceptional. I was told that children of such intermarriages were aptly called Sino-thai or known as ‘Luk-Jin’ in Thai. This traditional of Chinese-Thai intermarriage declined when large numbers of Chinese women began to immigrant into Thailand in the 20th century. 

During King Rama VI (1910-1925), a legistration that required the adoptation of Thai surnames was largely directed at easing the tensions with Chinese community by encouraged assimilation.  My grandfather took advantage of the legistration and adoptted the very first Thai surname in our family; that is, Mee-suk = having or possessing happiness.

Shamfully, I didn’t know that he was only half-Chinese. All my life, I had assumed that he was 100% and I had 1/4 of Chinese in me until I talked to my mother. I was pretty ignorance.  My assumption was slightly off but not too far from the fact.  Being a Thai-Chinese, my grandpa could say only one word in Chinese and it was ‘eat’. I found it very funny, though.  He was fluent in Thai language; he finished a compulsory school and became a teacher at a reputable school in Bangkok. Way to go grandpa!!!

My grandmother, who was neither Chinese nor Sino-Thai, mentioned that her father-in-law had lost touch with his Chinese family in Sichuan after his arrival in Thailand. Sadly, a story of ‘Tai’ in my family seemed to be automaticall halted.

I’ve gotten to go to bed. Maybe tomorrow I have something else to write about. I’m too tired to think.

Last year as I visited one of the ladies from a church close to my house, I saw a humming bird feeder hanging outside a glass window of her living room. Suddenly I saw a tiny green bird flapping his wings rapidly while he was feeding himself. His feeding time must have broken the world record because less than a few seconds he flew away and the other one came to take a sip. It was so fast that I couldn’t tell which was which. It was really enjoyable to see these birds again. On the way home, I managed to stop at a store to get a bird feeder. As soon as I arrived home, I poured a half cup of fine brown sugar with a cup of water into a bowl before heating it in a microwave. I waited until the sugar water was cool enough to be put in the feeder. I found a wire and grabbed the feeder to a cherry tree in my backyard. After having found the branch that was strong enough to sustain the weight of the feeder, I began to hang it on the tree. Coming back inside my house, I couldn’t help wondering if I would ever see the humming bird at that feeder. The first day passed by with no sign of the bird; he showed up on the second day, however, and brought a long his girlie bird. In fact, I still don’t know which one is female and which is male. They come and go very quickly. A lot of time I can only see a movement on the tree but don’t see their presents. One time my husband came inside the house and scolded me for leaving the bird feeder empty. He claimed that one of the humming birds kept cutting in front of his face so he went to check the feeder and it was empty. I hurried fixing the sugar water for the bird and that was the end of harassing from this little tiny bird.

When I went to visit Gloria, my next door neighbor, a week or two ago, I saw her humming birds sipping the nectar from her hanging flower basket, and that was when I knew that it was time for me to take care of my birds. Who knows? Perhaps she and I feed the same birds.I had put my feeder up 4-5days earlier and I managed to clean it up and changed to the fresh and clean water yesterday. My husband made sure that I wouldn’t keep the water longer than 3 days whether the feeder is empty or not. He says it will prevent any kind of disease that might harm the birds. It makes much sense to me. After all, if I’m going to be a benevolent to the bird, I should as well do it correctly.

The very first time I saw a humming bird was when I went on a honeymoon in Venezuela. My husband was on his business trip and could afford to have me accompany him there so there I was in a foreign country. We stayed at a hotel on the 20th some floor; outside our bay window was a big flower pot full of colorful flowers. One day I was standing next to the window enjoying the scenery. Suddenly, I saw something on the flower but wasn’t really sure what it was. I thought my eyes were playing trick on me. As I looked closer, it appeared to me that an exceptionally small bird was feeding himself on nectar among the flowers. A tiny body with a very rapid wings movement was extraordinary picture to look at.It was worth a trip to a tropical country like Venezuela. During a couple of weeks there, the temperature was perfect. At least that was how I felt - not too hot and not too cold. I assume it is an ideal temperature for most people. My husband said that it normally stays at 70 degrees all year around. I managed to explore the city while he was teaching the courses. As a matter of fact, I went to work with him the first couple of days and got bored. I spent time walking around the city and stopped a park. There I saw a long hairy-body creature on a tree. Later on I found out that it was called a ‘sloth’. I had never seen anything that could move so slow as this animal. I think that is how the word ‘sluggish’ is coming from. I couldn’t help wondering what the sloth would do if a danger was coming close to him. Would he still move at this speed?

Not only didn’t I see the dog at the horse farm, but I also noticed that two little ponies were nowhere to be seen. They must have been sold already. I saw the mares nibbling on the grass quietly. Once in a while they would glance up at me and continue on with their eating. Opposite to the horse farm is a green modular home (manufacturer home), and next to it is a very wide and long driveway that belongs to Gloria. Her house is situated at the end of the driveway and in the middle of the wood. I can’t recall her last name but I normally address her as the “Wind Turbines” lady to my husband. Gloria is against the proposal of wind turbines in our area and she opposes it openly by putting a sign in front of her driveway saying “Zone protected”. She told me once that the county was trying to allow an electric power company to install wind turbines towers. Not only will it make some sort of noise that bothers people, but it will depreciate the value of the property nearby. Those who support an idea of installing the towers claim that we all can get the natural energy from the wind.

I haven’t had a chance to dig into this issue yet; therefore, I will not cast my opinion on it. As far as I know, Gloria loves gardening. Obviously, she is a very neat and organized person. I can see it from the way her garden looks. She pointed out row by row what she had planted. As we walked toward her house, I saw a variety of plants whose flowers would definitely blossom within a couple of weeks. I’m sure her front yard will make the birds, butterflies, and bees very happy. Gloria asked me to stop by again to pick up some herbs after I was done with my walking.

I spent another half hour walking, thinking, and listening to my cassette tape before heading back home. After I had arrived, I told my husband that I needed a dozen of eggs to trade with Gloria. While waiting for him to clean up the eggs, I jumped into the shower, then put on a new pair of shorts and a fresh t-shirt ready to leave for Gloria’s house. 

If you think that living in the country is very peaceful, think again. You can hear the birds chirping from dawn to dusk; they are extremely loud in the morning. Sometimes I wonder what they are saying to one another. As loud as they might be, I would say it’s the pleasant noises that we all can enjoy.

I drove to Gloria’s and I was invited to sit in front of her porch so that she and I could talk and enjoy each other companies. There I saw so many kinds of birds flying around the area. She has at least 3 bird feeders hanging at the different places so that the birds don’t have to fight for food.

A pretty looking Blue Jay flew from one feeder to a branch of a tree close-by.  He made a couple of trips back and forth during the time I was there; I’m sure that he continued doing that all day as long as his own stomach was not full yet.

A red color male cardinal was cracking sunflower seeds on the surface of a small piece of wood where Gloria started to use as a feeding area. She said that most birds seemed to like it better than the bird feeders.  I don’t think I saw a female cardinal but I know that it is grayish with a pink crest and bill. You can see both male and female even in the city. They are attracted to your backyards with bird feeders stocked well with sunflower seeds. 

Goldfinch is my favorite birds of all. Some of them have yellow color all over their bodies except their heads, their wings, and their bottoms. They are very small birds, might be a little bit bigger than sparrow. They are unbelievably pretty; their vivid colors are stunning as well.

Wren and sparrow are very similar in sizes; sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between them.  Generally sparrows tend to be small, plump brown-grey birds with long tails. Wrens, on the other hand, have more brown color than sparrows; their bodies look very similar, plump with short tails.

I came home feeling very happy. After all, I had the great visit with my next-door neighbor. Oh, I did see a hummingbird on her hanging basket that was full of pretty flowers.