January, 2016
Report from the Bangkok Jewelry District
Greetings from hot sweaty Thailand. I have been pushing myself to prowl through the Bangkok jewelry district. Too many shops, too many enticing windows beckoning with every kind of gem, bead and artifact (new and old)... So excited, over-stimulated, exhausted and brimming with ideas that I could not sleep! Arising early and spreading out my new loot, I created ideas for new pieces and took raw materials to my fabricator to make up some samples. He is just up the street, and after our meeting we lunched at our favorite tiny cafe. Our table had a giant bouquet of purple orchids placed in a crystal vase. Each table had giant bouquets of some type of flower. One was all violet mini-carnations, another baby roses, extravagant lavish displays, each. Good people watching here as well as great music, art everywhere and big wooden floor to ceiling doors open to the air. And the food is delicious- yes, another component of the owner’s elegant business model. Outside the shop are several street cooks making chicken soup or grilled weenies for the various artisan jewelry and metal smiths working in this neighborhood. It is an odd juxtaposition of jewelry fabricators and people of leisure who lunch, along side hungry business people. While we were eating our chicken satay, we saw two men rolling in tall, thin extremely heavy and flammable tanks of oxygen or gas down the side alley - rolling them around and around on their ends, even rolling them over the hand made traffic bumps. One guy was wrangling two of these tanks, holding them close at their necks but continually twirling each in opposite directions -all the time rolling them forward. Quite an act!
Another day
Today we made a surgical shopping expedition out to the Chatuchak weekend market via the fabulous Sky Train. It is pristine and air conditioned- not a piece of litter anywhere, no graffiti at all. One way fare to Chatuchak Park costs about $1.25 per person. To get there we walk by stores fronted by row after row of all kinds of fruit and vegetable stands, sellers of cooked foods and sweets, floral garland offerings and lottery ticket sales. These individual entrepreneurial operations spill out onto the sidewalks, in front of the storefronts, so that all that is left is just a single person footpath. In season are white pomegranates, the much maligned garbage- stinky, spiky durian, green-skinned super sweet tangerines and tiny bananas the size of your thumb. The backdrop is a melange of filthy streets, shiny new high-rises and cranes, huge TV screens broadcasting ads like Snail White face cream, tattered billboards, rumbling city busses with no windows and hoards of motorcycle taxis lined up against the curbs. It feels like Bangkok was a source of inspiration for many of the street scenes in the futuristic movie “Blade Runner”.
We arrived at the weekend market before the massive crowds arrived. Half of the stalls were not open, but everyone we wanted to shop with was already there and open. One of my favorite silver sellers had some really nice stuff. People have repeatedly told us how slow tourism is here lately. It started about 5 years ago with the political unrest and military coup. Not to mention how fearful people are of venturing too far from home these days. But our hotel is full and we see lots of foreigners enjoying their lives in this great city of Bangkok.
One of our best market finds, besides all my beautiful silver, was a small corner shop selling realistic, tiny mini Thai food carts. So charming! We could not resist the intricate miniature details of the satay cart- complete with a grill full of painted "glowing embers" and teeny porcelain side dishes with "peanut sauce", a chopping block and microscopic cleaver. We also got a coffee cart and a Pad Thai cart. All that and more we shipped off at the post office this afternoon.
The most striking sight of the day was truly a timeless one. We first heard, then spotted a man making a rhythmic metallic sound by swiveling to and fro a small metal hand cymbal in his left hand. On his right shoulder he balanced a long stick with two tall square old oil containers suspended at either end. The front container was full of sticks of wood. The container behind him had a fire burning in the bottom and there was a tar-like smell eminating from it. What was it? He is the dyer of black. Bring your stained clothes and for a small fee he covers them with the tar-based hot black dye. Who knew?
Well, we hit it hard in Bangkok and will pick up our metal-smithing work tomorrow afternoon. Sunday we leave for a few days at the beach. We saw the stick and soon we get to eat the carrot.
Another day
Hi dear friends. We are hoping you are well and that the weather has gotten better. Yesterday we flew from Bangkok to Phuket, then drive about 90 minutes to “our” beach. Our small hotel overlooks the Gulf of Siam and we sit on a fairly shallow bay. At high tide the water is beautiful, but at low tide one sees a coral reef cemetery. All that is left are worn gray nubs, which is really sad and indicative of the tragic endangering of coral reefs everywhere. The palms are beautiful and the sand is fine and soft.
We walked up the beach near sunset and encountered a happy bar/ restaurant just hopping with a lot of Thai and Chinese customers. The bar/ restaurant just before it was quite empty. A sort of sad looking approached us with puppy dog eyes and a menu. We said "maybe later" and continued walking. After a few steps our hearts melted and we sat down at this sad little place. We had a wonderful beer and dug our feet into the soft sand, watching the sunset and a beige sand dog shift from place to place. We ordered egg rolls, thinking if the food is bad and that is why nobody is here, how bad can a spring roll be? Hahahaha. If your idea of a spring roll is all slightly fermented cabbage and squishy grease, then here is the Michelin star place for you. We looked around and realized there was one customer that looked a lot like Putin, another with ginormous beer belly, and then a table with a lone pretty, young woman. She sat there all evening smoking. The "cook" is a huge slob with a cigarette dangling from his big fish lips. I guess you can tell we will not be going back there. The sad waiter is probably days away from losing his job due to lack of business, poor guy.
I guess i will never get a job working for the Chamber of Commerce. But I did stop to think that every place has its own vibe and subculture that tourists float above. Will report back.
Another day
Hello All. We are trying hard to keep on our island parrot heads when the world, once again seems to have gone mad. This time the Sultanahmet square where John and I walked so many times. It is another tragedy and I hope we don't become numb to them.
After breakfast we took a long tail boat ride around the bay. The boatman is wiry and small, weighing in at maybe 90 pounds. He looked sharp in his navy blue Underarmor underwear and iridescent blue mirrored sunglasses. He told us about the tsunami 5 years ago, how he had taken a Dutch couple fishing at 7:30 and the tsunami hit at 8:00. He said the violent waves lasted 8 hours so all that time he circled and waited to come ashore. When he did nothing was there. Luckily not so many people in this area lost their lives. Our hotel was built subsequently to the disaster.
For dinner we will drag our sorry selves up the beach past the bad egg roll place to the happy place. John has mastered the art of settling into the sand the back legs of the plastic chairs. If you just sit down, the front legs sink in more deeply than the back, so than you feel like you are in an ejector seat. His skill is essential for beach grazing.
Another day
The sun is aiming at our room like a giant spotlight, as it prepares to put on its spectacular evening light show. Today was a lost day in a zen way, except for the jewelry designs that are incubating in my dream time. It has grown still now, but earlier there was a steady breeze, which made for delicious relaxation. We walked up the beach for lunch to experience again the crispy super fresh, fried calamari crusted with bits of tiny garlic cloves and pepper. Maybe I don't want to know what they drizzle on top of this squid, but I suspect it is clarified garlic butter that takes on an almost caramelized effect with the crunchy garlic coating. A serving of this costs about $2.75. The music is something like Thai Karaoke Superstars Sing Hits of the 70s. They are pretty good. "Islands in the storm, that is what we are, and we can ride it together uh huh". "lemon tree wary pretty ". “Puff the Magic Dragon+. Thai people like sweet, bittersweet songs. I like that.
One of our waiters is from Serbia, living with the family that owns the cafe, He is to study Thai for a year. He is unfortunately, about 6'2" and ducks continually under the ridged roof hut where we are eating. His passion is rhythm and blues and 50s music from the South. He spoke passionately about how Jamie Fox expertly played Ray Charles in the movie. A much older, red faced man sits at the table nearby, nursing a beer while his twenty something wife fidgets her right leg nonstop. He is to her right; her right leg is crossed over her left, her right arm a barricade or fort, stretched across the table.
The sun has set. It is 6:30. Night to all.
Another day
Hello everyone,.
Well, goodbye digging ones feet in the sand while imbibing in beers at the Beach Bar, watching sand dogs dig to China for crabs then flop into their excavations for afternoon naps, goodbye to the subtle snap crack pop of tiny crustaceans tossing over shell shards seeking their minuscule nourishments as the water trickles out to sea at low tide.
Another day
Hi everyone. After a long damned travel day we arrived in Chiang Mai and to our hotel around 10 PM last night. The report here is brrrrr. Quite oddly and unseasonably it has been raining here and is really cold. Imagine puffed up pigeons clustered in bunches, people wearing hoodies, jackets, scarves, caps and mittens in northern Thailand! We thought we'd be perspiring but nope, shivering. The only transport we could get this morning to the antique silver shop was an open air Tuk Tuk. But still, it is cute here. I scored big with my shopping, scooping up buckets of old, old and vintage treasures.
Another day
Hello All. We two busy bees buzzed back to the hive in The Big Mango last night. Ahh compared to Chiang Mai, Bangkok is at least 10-12 degrees warmer and not raining at present. We knew we had to buzz off and get back to our little corner of the big city to patch John up in preparation for our long upcoming flights and layover in Seoul. I also retrieved work from my fabricator. Excited and exciting- cannot wait to get started on my new line of jewelry with diamonds and old, old silver. Reminds me of the Joan Baez line, “Diamonds and Rust”.
But before we left Chiang Mai I finished my antique jewelry and old coins, ingots buying (excellent!) and we had to eat some gai yang, sticky rice and som tam salad from our favorite place. Of course it is outdoors, only sheltered by a giant tree inhabited by a small family of fat, well fed and easy going large rats. They know a good thing or two, and have no need to bother us. Part of the "charm" of an outdoor restaurants cohabiting with nature... Anyway, if you can imagine us each wearing at least 5 layers of clothes- 2 tank tops, a tee shirt, a long sleeved shirt, sweater and shawl for me- still freezing and huddled at a small oil-cloth covered picnic table. The gai yang BBQ chicken had been marinated in garlic and lemongrass, then perfectly grilled over charcoal. The tart, sweet garlicky green papaya salad freshly made, with pieces of long green bean, tomatoes and roasted peanuts. The dipping sauce a sweet and fiery combination of red and green chilies, with palm sugar and fish sauce. It was great.
We returned to our meat locker of a room and hunkered under the covers. No relief as even the bed did not warm. What to do? Break out the Johnny Walker Black and crank up the iTunes- old Linda Ronstat, Leonard Cohen, Eddy Louiss jazz organ.., this helped greatly! We bought the last two tickets out of Chiang Mai on the last flight last night. It cost a lot more, but whatever, to get back to the hive.
We start the long trip home tomorrow night.
I am happy to say today is departure night because I have jewelry to make and ideas that have percolated that must come up for air. But John is in mourning. Our plane departs shortly before midnight. So goodbye hot pink iridescent cabs, goodbye broom and whisk seller honking a handheld bulb horn and pulling his cart like a hermit crab smothered in utilitarian objects. Good bye ice cream bicycle cart with cooler box plastered with colorful stickers, goodbye fruit man's cart with fresh mangoes, green mangos with hot chili dipping sauce and sweetest pineapple. Goodbye rich peoples' many thousands of dollars, post-wedding fireworks show from the Peninsula Hotel over the Chaophraya River that jolt us out of bed and remind us that we are returning to the land of fear.
Goodbye my favorite silver sellers and antique jewelry sellers, my dear fabricator, his workers and all that provides bounty for my business in Bangkok. Goodbye lively street action- people coming from or going to work at all hours, eating street food at all hours, sidewalk smoking and gossiping, monks chanting at 4PM from the temple across the street, children singing amplified good morning sings from the Catholic school the next alley over. So long non-stop activity, an integration of local residents and so many from throughout the world who also love the pink cabs, mango sticky rice and warm, sweet Thai people.
Studio, friends, see you soon.
Report from the Bangkok Jewelry District
Greetings from hot sweaty Thailand. I have been pushing myself to prowl through the Bangkok jewelry district. Too many shops, too many enticing windows beckoning with every kind of gem, bead and artifact (new and old)... So excited, over-stimulated, exhausted and brimming with ideas that I could not sleep! Arising early and spreading out my new loot, I created ideas for new pieces and took raw materials to my fabricator to make up some samples. He is just up the street, and after our meeting we lunched at our favorite tiny cafe. Our table had a giant bouquet of purple orchids placed in a crystal vase. Each table had giant bouquets of some type of flower. One was all violet mini-carnations, another baby roses, extravagant lavish displays, each. Good people watching here as well as great music, art everywhere and big wooden floor to ceiling doors open to the air. And the food is delicious- yes, another component of the owner’s elegant business model. Outside the shop are several street cooks making chicken soup or grilled weenies for the various artisan jewelry and metal smiths working in this neighborhood. It is an odd juxtaposition of jewelry fabricators and people of leisure who lunch, along side hungry business people. While we were eating our chicken satay, we saw two men rolling in tall, thin extremely heavy and flammable tanks of oxygen or gas down the side alley - rolling them around and around on their ends, even rolling them over the hand made traffic bumps. One guy was wrangling two of these tanks, holding them close at their necks but continually twirling each in opposite directions -all the time rolling them forward. Quite an act!
Another day
Today we made a surgical shopping expedition out to the Chatuchak weekend market via the fabulous Sky Train. It is pristine and air conditioned- not a piece of litter anywhere, no graffiti at all. One way fare to Chatuchak Park costs about $1.25 per person. To get there we walk by stores fronted by row after row of all kinds of fruit and vegetable stands, sellers of cooked foods and sweets, floral garland offerings and lottery ticket sales. These individual entrepreneurial operations spill out onto the sidewalks, in front of the storefronts, so that all that is left is just a single person footpath. In season are white pomegranates, the much maligned garbage- stinky, spiky durian, green-skinned super sweet tangerines and tiny bananas the size of your thumb. The backdrop is a melange of filthy streets, shiny new high-rises and cranes, huge TV screens broadcasting ads like Snail White face cream, tattered billboards, rumbling city busses with no windows and hoards of motorcycle taxis lined up against the curbs. It feels like Bangkok was a source of inspiration for many of the street scenes in the futuristic movie “Blade Runner”.
We arrived at the weekend market before the massive crowds arrived. Half of the stalls were not open, but everyone we wanted to shop with was already there and open. One of my favorite silver sellers had some really nice stuff. People have repeatedly told us how slow tourism is here lately. It started about 5 years ago with the political unrest and military coup. Not to mention how fearful people are of venturing too far from home these days. But our hotel is full and we see lots of foreigners enjoying their lives in this great city of Bangkok.
One of our best market finds, besides all my beautiful silver, was a small corner shop selling realistic, tiny mini Thai food carts. So charming! We could not resist the intricate miniature details of the satay cart- complete with a grill full of painted "glowing embers" and teeny porcelain side dishes with "peanut sauce", a chopping block and microscopic cleaver. We also got a coffee cart and a Pad Thai cart. All that and more we shipped off at the post office this afternoon.
The most striking sight of the day was truly a timeless one. We first heard, then spotted a man making a rhythmic metallic sound by swiveling to and fro a small metal hand cymbal in his left hand. On his right shoulder he balanced a long stick with two tall square old oil containers suspended at either end. The front container was full of sticks of wood. The container behind him had a fire burning in the bottom and there was a tar-like smell eminating from it. What was it? He is the dyer of black. Bring your stained clothes and for a small fee he covers them with the tar-based hot black dye. Who knew?
Well, we hit it hard in Bangkok and will pick up our metal-smithing work tomorrow afternoon. Sunday we leave for a few days at the beach. We saw the stick and soon we get to eat the carrot.
Another day
Hi dear friends. We are hoping you are well and that the weather has gotten better. Yesterday we flew from Bangkok to Phuket, then drive about 90 minutes to “our” beach. Our small hotel overlooks the Gulf of Siam and we sit on a fairly shallow bay. At high tide the water is beautiful, but at low tide one sees a coral reef cemetery. All that is left are worn gray nubs, which is really sad and indicative of the tragic endangering of coral reefs everywhere. The palms are beautiful and the sand is fine and soft.
We walked up the beach near sunset and encountered a happy bar/ restaurant just hopping with a lot of Thai and Chinese customers. The bar/ restaurant just before it was quite empty. A sort of sad looking approached us with puppy dog eyes and a menu. We said "maybe later" and continued walking. After a few steps our hearts melted and we sat down at this sad little place. We had a wonderful beer and dug our feet into the soft sand, watching the sunset and a beige sand dog shift from place to place. We ordered egg rolls, thinking if the food is bad and that is why nobody is here, how bad can a spring roll be? Hahahaha. If your idea of a spring roll is all slightly fermented cabbage and squishy grease, then here is the Michelin star place for you. We looked around and realized there was one customer that looked a lot like Putin, another with ginormous beer belly, and then a table with a lone pretty, young woman. She sat there all evening smoking. The "cook" is a huge slob with a cigarette dangling from his big fish lips. I guess you can tell we will not be going back there. The sad waiter is probably days away from losing his job due to lack of business, poor guy.
I guess i will never get a job working for the Chamber of Commerce. But I did stop to think that every place has its own vibe and subculture that tourists float above. Will report back.
Another day
Hello All. We are trying hard to keep on our island parrot heads when the world, once again seems to have gone mad. This time the Sultanahmet square where John and I walked so many times. It is another tragedy and I hope we don't become numb to them.
After breakfast we took a long tail boat ride around the bay. The boatman is wiry and small, weighing in at maybe 90 pounds. He looked sharp in his navy blue Underarmor underwear and iridescent blue mirrored sunglasses. He told us about the tsunami 5 years ago, how he had taken a Dutch couple fishing at 7:30 and the tsunami hit at 8:00. He said the violent waves lasted 8 hours so all that time he circled and waited to come ashore. When he did nothing was there. Luckily not so many people in this area lost their lives. Our hotel was built subsequently to the disaster.
For dinner we will drag our sorry selves up the beach past the bad egg roll place to the happy place. John has mastered the art of settling into the sand the back legs of the plastic chairs. If you just sit down, the front legs sink in more deeply than the back, so than you feel like you are in an ejector seat. His skill is essential for beach grazing.
Another day
The sun is aiming at our room like a giant spotlight, as it prepares to put on its spectacular evening light show. Today was a lost day in a zen way, except for the jewelry designs that are incubating in my dream time. It has grown still now, but earlier there was a steady breeze, which made for delicious relaxation. We walked up the beach for lunch to experience again the crispy super fresh, fried calamari crusted with bits of tiny garlic cloves and pepper. Maybe I don't want to know what they drizzle on top of this squid, but I suspect it is clarified garlic butter that takes on an almost caramelized effect with the crunchy garlic coating. A serving of this costs about $2.75. The music is something like Thai Karaoke Superstars Sing Hits of the 70s. They are pretty good. "Islands in the storm, that is what we are, and we can ride it together uh huh". "lemon tree wary pretty ". “Puff the Magic Dragon+. Thai people like sweet, bittersweet songs. I like that.
One of our waiters is from Serbia, living with the family that owns the cafe, He is to study Thai for a year. He is unfortunately, about 6'2" and ducks continually under the ridged roof hut where we are eating. His passion is rhythm and blues and 50s music from the South. He spoke passionately about how Jamie Fox expertly played Ray Charles in the movie. A much older, red faced man sits at the table nearby, nursing a beer while his twenty something wife fidgets her right leg nonstop. He is to her right; her right leg is crossed over her left, her right arm a barricade or fort, stretched across the table.
The sun has set. It is 6:30. Night to all.
Another day
Hello everyone,.
Well, goodbye digging ones feet in the sand while imbibing in beers at the Beach Bar, watching sand dogs dig to China for crabs then flop into their excavations for afternoon naps, goodbye to the subtle snap crack pop of tiny crustaceans tossing over shell shards seeking their minuscule nourishments as the water trickles out to sea at low tide.
Another day
Hi everyone. After a long damned travel day we arrived in Chiang Mai and to our hotel around 10 PM last night. The report here is brrrrr. Quite oddly and unseasonably it has been raining here and is really cold. Imagine puffed up pigeons clustered in bunches, people wearing hoodies, jackets, scarves, caps and mittens in northern Thailand! We thought we'd be perspiring but nope, shivering. The only transport we could get this morning to the antique silver shop was an open air Tuk Tuk. But still, it is cute here. I scored big with my shopping, scooping up buckets of old, old and vintage treasures.
Another day
Hello All. We two busy bees buzzed back to the hive in The Big Mango last night. Ahh compared to Chiang Mai, Bangkok is at least 10-12 degrees warmer and not raining at present. We knew we had to buzz off and get back to our little corner of the big city to patch John up in preparation for our long upcoming flights and layover in Seoul. I also retrieved work from my fabricator. Excited and exciting- cannot wait to get started on my new line of jewelry with diamonds and old, old silver. Reminds me of the Joan Baez line, “Diamonds and Rust”.
But before we left Chiang Mai I finished my antique jewelry and old coins, ingots buying (excellent!) and we had to eat some gai yang, sticky rice and som tam salad from our favorite place. Of course it is outdoors, only sheltered by a giant tree inhabited by a small family of fat, well fed and easy going large rats. They know a good thing or two, and have no need to bother us. Part of the "charm" of an outdoor restaurants cohabiting with nature... Anyway, if you can imagine us each wearing at least 5 layers of clothes- 2 tank tops, a tee shirt, a long sleeved shirt, sweater and shawl for me- still freezing and huddled at a small oil-cloth covered picnic table. The gai yang BBQ chicken had been marinated in garlic and lemongrass, then perfectly grilled over charcoal. The tart, sweet garlicky green papaya salad freshly made, with pieces of long green bean, tomatoes and roasted peanuts. The dipping sauce a sweet and fiery combination of red and green chilies, with palm sugar and fish sauce. It was great.
We returned to our meat locker of a room and hunkered under the covers. No relief as even the bed did not warm. What to do? Break out the Johnny Walker Black and crank up the iTunes- old Linda Ronstat, Leonard Cohen, Eddy Louiss jazz organ.., this helped greatly! We bought the last two tickets out of Chiang Mai on the last flight last night. It cost a lot more, but whatever, to get back to the hive.
We start the long trip home tomorrow night.
I am happy to say today is departure night because I have jewelry to make and ideas that have percolated that must come up for air. But John is in mourning. Our plane departs shortly before midnight. So goodbye hot pink iridescent cabs, goodbye broom and whisk seller honking a handheld bulb horn and pulling his cart like a hermit crab smothered in utilitarian objects. Good bye ice cream bicycle cart with cooler box plastered with colorful stickers, goodbye fruit man's cart with fresh mangoes, green mangos with hot chili dipping sauce and sweetest pineapple. Goodbye rich peoples' many thousands of dollars, post-wedding fireworks show from the Peninsula Hotel over the Chaophraya River that jolt us out of bed and remind us that we are returning to the land of fear.
Goodbye my favorite silver sellers and antique jewelry sellers, my dear fabricator, his workers and all that provides bounty for my business in Bangkok. Goodbye lively street action- people coming from or going to work at all hours, eating street food at all hours, sidewalk smoking and gossiping, monks chanting at 4PM from the temple across the street, children singing amplified good morning sings from the Catholic school the next alley over. So long non-stop activity, an integration of local residents and so many from throughout the world who also love the pink cabs, mango sticky rice and warm, sweet Thai people.
Studio, friends, see you soon.