IT City at Zeet, Homepro at Rangsit Future Park, and Pizza

Sunday 10/9
The community meeting was about the new road. I guess it is being privately funded and the community had to agree. When there was a vote it looked like a unanimous vote to support the road. I took about 5 rolls of film. My purpose is to create a photo album that the community can have to document some of their activities. I especially looked for pictures of the older people in the community. I will try to get the pictures developed this week. Using film there is the unknown aspect of photography, did they turn out, was the light correct. The meeting was outside under a tarp so the light and contrast was varied. I just set the exposure for faces in the shadow and used that as my essential exposure. I also shot color, but will probably convert most of the images to black and white.

The hospital trip went as planned. There were 7 people in the car. We got home about 7:00 and went to eat at Juke's house. It is emotional to see a person approaching death.

Monday 10/10
Today we visited STOU. We met with Nednapa. There was not much going on today. We will communicate with email for our next appointment or task.

While we were walking to the counseling center three little girls walked by, one of them said in very good English "How are you?" I said fine. Later, on the way over to the coffee shop, we saw them again and said hi. As we walked on we heard running foot steps. Two girls came up and asked "Where do you come from?" we said Alaska and they laughed and ran back to the other children.

After STOU we went to the Rangsit area to see Future Park, Homepro, and to go to IT City in Zeer. On the way I noticed a Wat with a very modern Stupa, sort of like a modern church. It was sort of interesting, but I think it lost something in the translation. It was not impressive, just sort of curious.

We also saw St. John Mary school. International schools seem to drape themselves with English and Christian names and symbols. It is sort of strange.

Rangsit Future Park is a huge mall complex. We visited Homepro with is sort of like Lowes. The selection was impressive and I saw many things that I have not seen before. The prices were less expensive then at the Index home center. We were looking at kitchen cabinets. We walked to Office Depot, but no 3X5 cards or anything like them! Grrrr.... We walked over the main mall and I had some Pizza. It was good, but with the smoothie, pretty expensive. The malls are really modern and interesting. I am sure Margaret, may daughter, would love them. They are not as boring as the Mall of America because of the diversity of choices.

At Homepro there was a place that made wooden address signs. One of the signs on the wall said LADYBOOM! I thought it was funny, but sometimes what makes me laugh is not shared with others!

IT City in Zeer is similar in scope to Pantip Plaza. We walked though all three active floors. There are other floors but most of them did not have retail shops. IT City is directly connected to a hotel. Some of my observations:

There were a few tech training places, one was offering a special of Word, Excel, or Windows training for 990 Baht. Others were offering Autocad training. Form what I was seeing they did not look too busy, at least in the afternoon. Some of the classrooms did not look like they were being used.

I saw one shop with very professional testing equipment including Fluke tools.

Many staff were using scooters to get around, it seemed to work well, but horns, or bells, would have made it less surprising. I also saw many Monks. I guess young men share common interests no matter what their vocation.

There were many poster and banner shops with large printers. It looked like a very professional service with high quality equipment. I see similar shops in many malls.

IT City did not seem crowded. There were some empty locations.

The digital camera selection was a little dated and not completely current. Prices were not a bargain for what I could compare with Fairbanks or Amazon. Some of the camera were very high price. The camera that I use, an Olympus C7070 can be purchased in the United States for $380. I saw it at IT City for over $550.

IT City is much more sedate then Pantip Plaza, which, for me, is a good thing. We still will check out Pantip Plaza later.

On the way back we drove by a Ferrari dealership with some very fancy cars in stock. The only place I have seen real Ferraris is in Seattle. You would have to be very rich to afford and drive one. I can not imagine driving a Ferrari in a traffic jam.

I saw three broken Toyota Taxis today, it was a surprise. Seeing all the Toyota's used as taxies is an impressive statement for their quality, but just when I was going to comment on the quality of Toyota I saw three broken ones. One had steam coming out the exhaust like a broken head gasket. It is a wonder really that there are not more broken taxis beside the road.

When we got home we walked to the new road with Jit's mom in the wheelchair. We went to Muu 5. Jit's community is Muu 9. When we were there a loudspeaker truck came by and advertised fruit. We bought some. As we walked back kids were singing a kind of nursery rhyme. "What kind of flowers do you have?" "A rose?" "No not that." etc. Sounded pretty cool.

The workers made an interesting broken tile pattern on the laundry floor. They used a variety of left over tile. It is a good improvisation.

Today was busy and interesting. It was good to see IT City. The sense was that the IT boom has passed, but it was still interesting.

We will keep in touch with STOU, but nothing will be happening for the next few days. I think people have work to do.

Tomorrow I will start some more Thai lessons. I hope we get the film developed tomorrow or the next day. Since I used film today I can not post pictures to support the blog today. I like using film cameras though, especially the Voigtlander Bessa R2a and the Ricoh GR1v and GR21.

A full and very busy day.