tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:32:48 +0000This blog is by Paul Steinkraus, native of MI, USA and temporary resident of Bangkok. The word "Khun" in the Thai language is a respectful title assigned by Thais to every other person (essentially equivalent to "Mr." or "Mrs." in English). It always precedes the person's first name and is routinely used in everyday conversation. So, while it sounded strange at first, it already seems perfectly normal...much like how I expect to view most of Thai culture as time goes by.http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)Blogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-2549383994654586487Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:37:00 +00002008-11-25T04:57:45.721-08:00Having watched many exciting tennis matches in the late 1970's and early 1980's involving Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, Doris and I were thrilled to have the opportunity to see these two tennis legends play each other in an exhibition here in Bangkok last Saturday. Okay, so they aren't exactly in their prime anymore, but it was still neat. McEnroe, of course, protested several line calls by http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/11/legendary-tennis.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-4200194227733488335Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:29:00 +00002008-09-08T10:42:17.210-07:00I just concluded two enjoyable weeks in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Austin with Doris. We made some new friends, unpacked boxes of our belongings, selected new furnishings for the house, etc. One of the more interesting things we did was simply watch the construction of our in-ground swimming pool, which coincidentally began upon my arrival in http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/09/pool-in-progress.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-296028424293731010Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:33:00 +00002008-08-26T23:31:43.053-07:00Doris and I sampled some music last night in Austin, Texas, which bills itself as the "live music capital of the world." We enjoyed listening to an unsigned recording artist, Suzanne Smith, accompanied by another guitarist and a fiddle player, at an Irish pub called B.D. Riley's on 6th Street, where many of the live music acts perform. I'm posting a couple of self-explanatory pictures: We hope http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/08/lone-star-state-of-mind.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-7414990476285563483Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:07:00 +00002008-08-17T03:47:05.333-07:00 With Doris in Austin, I decided to take a trip by myself this weekend to Khao Yai National Park, Thailand's largest, which is located about a two-hour drive from Bangkok. I wasn't actually "by myself," since our driver, Khun Akkachai, took me there and was my friendly companion while touring the park. He proved to be an invaluable resource in many ways, including translating from Thai to http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/08/ive-been-to-bat-cave.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-5678899787387930240Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:14:00 +00002008-08-09T17:50:06.162-07:00Quite some time ago, I wrote about attending a performance by a Beatles tribute band in Bangkok called the Beaters. Last Friday night, I went with a friend of mine, Matt Totsky, to hear another Beatles tribute band, The Better. They were excellent, and Beatles songs have been playing in my head. Some pics of the band, as well as of Matt:And where else but in Bangkok could you walk out of a pubhttp://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/08/beatles-revisited.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-7387460543580890449Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:35:00 +00002008-06-25T08:16:12.566-07:00I truly admire how hard people work at overcoming the language barriers that divide them, and how often their efforts succeed, despite the use of less-than-elegant communications. Two examples from Thailand that struck my funny bone:While riding on the Bangkok sky train recently, I discreetly peered over the shoulder of a Thai woman to read the English dialogue she was studying and practicing http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-language-humor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-2069439330983604096Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:05:00 +00002008-06-15T04:52:15.149-07:00Doris and I have just returned from a glorious week at a resort in Bali. We now know a lot more about this tropical paradise, which is one of roughly 13,000 islands comprising Indonesia. We spent a good deal of time just lounging on the beach or around the pool at the resort, sipping tropical drinks:. . . but we also hired a car and driver and took some excursions. Some of the more interestinghttp://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/06/hello-bali.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-5994084797227530909Sun, 01 Jun 2008 09:53:00 +00002008-06-02T07:36:28.347-07:00Having spent all of last week in Pretoria, South Africa on business, I drove about two hours to Pilanesberg National Park on the weekend in hopes of seeing some big game animals. I had been to an "animal safari" in England with the family many years ago, but I always suspected it wasn't the same thing as seeing animals in their natural habitat. I can't remember precisely what creatures we saw http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/06/stalking-big-game-in-south-africa.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-5481955019018326935Mon, 05 May 2008 06:46:00 +00002008-05-04T23:52:50.273-07:00Progress continues on the house we're building in Austin. We're still trying to nail down a closing date, but it now looks like it's going to be around the end of June. Some pics of how things are going:http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/05/austin-house-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-8442694595948992130Thu, 01 May 2008 11:16:00 +00002008-05-01T05:02:58.218-07:00In April, Doris and I visited both of our sons and their families, in Mountain View, CA and Redmond, WA. The timing for our visit was driven by the second birthday of Peter, son of Kurt and Karen and our only grandchild at this point (though another one, courtesy of Jeff and Katy, is on the way). Yes, we took pictures of people and things other than Peter during our visit, but mostly we just http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/05/didnt-we-just-have-two-year-old.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-4214643013609917152Sun, 09 Mar 2008 08:29:00 +00002008-03-09T01:03:27.848-08:00Okay, so the title to this entry is a blatant ripoff of the name of the blog maintained by my friend Matt (see the link at the right, near the top, to "My Friend Matt's Cool Blog."). I just couldn't resist, because Doris and I had an interesting and very enjoyable dinner in Bangkok last night with a new friend named Byron Mann, along with his Thai girlfriend Jeab. We met Byron and Jeab a week http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/03/one-mann-in-bangkok.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-1082813861172319070Sun, 09 Mar 2008 07:51:00 +00002008-03-09T00:29:49.298-08:00As you may recall from an earlier blog entry, one of our Thai lawyers, Khun Sutathip, went on maternity leave at the end of last year. She visited my office with her baby, Eames, this week. Eames naturally was a big hit:The photo above shows Eames with Sutathip, as well as Khun May, the more junior of our Thai lawyers. Eames also took a good look at me:And, of course, there's nothing like a http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/03/baby-eames-visits-ford.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-4525484244352059891Sun, 09 Mar 2008 07:32:00 +00002008-03-08T23:48:09.875-08:00Here are some photos showing the significant progress on our house in Austin. We just learned today that the insulation has been installed, and when Doris is in Texas in just a little over two weeks, the dry wall may be up by then.http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/03/now-its-looking-like-house.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-4290844675831281243Sun, 09 Mar 2008 07:01:00 +00002008-03-08T23:32:07.734-08:00A few weeks ago, Doris and I attended a charity ball in Bangkok that was sponsored by the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand. The theme of the ball was "South of the Border," and attendees were encouraged to dress appropriately. Doris put a lot of effort into finding the right clothing and accessories for us to wear. This wasn't easy, because as you might imagine, Thai stores don't http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/03/pale-mexicans-at-south-of-border-ball.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-8015006135761175693Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:27:00 +00002008-01-26T05:56:58.552-08:00Great progress has been made on the construction of our house in Austin over the last three weeks, as illustrated by the photos below that our builder e-mailed to us:At this rate, you'd think the house would be ready in only another month or so, but the builder is continuing to estimate a completion date in July or August.http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/01/up-she-goes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-4854526689501344656Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:01:00 +00002008-01-07T14:41:48.593-08:00After Doris and I finished the holiday celebrations with our sons and their families in California, we headed to Austin, Texas for a quick check on the status of our house construction. When we arrived in Austin, we discovered it was in the middle of a cold snap, with high temperatures in the upper 50s causing the locals to assure us that this was truly unusual. I admit to being a little http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/01/on-verge-of-slab.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-8097377617544256575Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:31:00 +00002008-01-06T16:27:07.932-08:00Christmas 2007 was a "cold" Christmas for a couple of reasons.First, Doris and I celebrated the holiday in Sunnyvale, California, where our son Kurt and his family live. Measured against typical temperatures in Michigan, where we have spent most of our Christmases, Sunnyvale's daytime highs in the low 50s F (roughly 10 degrees C) should have seemed downright balmy. Instead, I found myself http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2008/01/cold-christmas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-646372402247050770Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:09:00 +00002007-12-22T06:40:23.942-08:00Yesterday was the last day in the office for awhile for Khun Sutathip, the senior of the two Thai lawyers who work for me. She is due to have her first baby within the next week or so, and she will be taking a three-month maternity leave. Her departure coincides with the upcoming holiday break, so I took her and our junior lawyer (Khun May) and our administrative assistant (Khun Lee) out to http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2007/12/delightful-lunch-with-thai-staff.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-5661068878130637368Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:10:00 +00002007-11-01T22:11:32.393-07:00Can one get an accurate impression of a country after visiting it for only a short period? Probably not, but Doris and I feel as though we know quite a bit more about China and its people, having just completed an eight-day tour of Shanghai, Beijing and Xi'an.We started our visit in Shanghai, where I had two days of business meetings. Normally, I get to see very little of the cities to which I http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2007/10/taste-of-china.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-1714316810236394494Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:03:00 +00002007-10-04T06:41:03.433-07:00John Lennon offered this explanation last night for the delayed start of his band's performance. He wasn't actually John Lennon, of course, but rather the John impersonator in a Beatles tribute band called "The Beaters." The band, comprised of Thai performers dressed in Beatles garb and wigs, plays Beatles music every Wednesday night at a restaurant/bar in Bangkok. And doesn't it somehow seem http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2007/10/ringo-is-parking-car.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-8378302510543109056Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:34:00 +00002007-09-09T02:27:38.713-07:00When we moved to Thailand in 2005, we sold our house in Ann Arbor, MI and became apartment dwellers in Bangkok, owning no real estate of any kind anywhere. Since then, we've entertained many different ideas of where we'd like eventually to own a house in the States. For quite awhile, we were seriously thinking about buying property in Las Vegas. We even made a low-ball offer on an existing http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2007/09/building-yet-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-8356180792930451394Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:28:00 +00002007-08-05T11:14:14.199-07:00We've just finished a very enjoyable week with friends and relatives as part of our home leave for 2007. George and Ann Tucker, parents of our daughter-in-law Katy, generously invited us to join them and their family at a Marriott timeshare at Ko Olina on Oahu. Some of my favorite pics of the week:Jeff and Katy aboard a catamaran, en route to a snorkeling site.Doris in front of Waimea Falls, http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2007/08/week-in-paradise.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-1942532781948526354Tue, 08 May 2007 14:06:00 +00002007-05-08T07:23:13.488-07:00Overcoming the language barrier is a daily challenge here. To cite just one example, I give you a conversation I had this morning with our driver, Khun Akkachai, as he drove me to work after being off yesterday for a public holiday in Thailand:Me: "So, Khun Akkachai, did you enjoy your day off with your family?"Akkachai: "Yes, mister. My daughter, she about take activity in the water."(long http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2007/05/english-as-she-is-not-meant-to-be.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-4852027685828621285Sun, 22 Apr 2007 02:23:00 +00002007-04-21T19:58:20.536-07:00Doris and I enjoyed a week-long getaway this April to Koh Samui, an island in the south of Thailand located about an hour by plane from Bangkok. We were taking advantage of several days off because of the Thai New Year, also known as Songkran. Our trip will always be memorable for me, for several unexpected reasons. We started off staying in a hotel that Doris had found and booked online. Thehttp://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2007/04/stair-master-vacation-in-koh-samui.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16306489.post-7218141064289667106Sun, 22 Apr 2007 01:18:00 +00002007-04-21T19:23:03.189-07:00In March, Doris and I hosted a dinner at a nearby restaurant for the two Thai lawyers who work for me at Ford, Khun Sutathip and Khun May, as a thank you for all their invaluable service at the office. K. Sutathip was accompanied by her husband, Pite, and May brought her boyfriend, Ake. The four of them are pictured below (from left to right: Ake, May, Pite and Sutathip). If it weren't for http://khunpaul.blogspot.com/2007/04/thank-you-to-staff-members.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Steinkraus)0