Jazz in Bangkok, Thailand

One of the highlights of my recent holiday was going finding jazz hangouts in Bangkok. My most enjoyable visit was to the Saxophone Pub. It is a pub that features jazz and blues music, with regular live performances. The night that I went (it was a Wednesday) a big band style band played, aptly named the JRP Little Big Band (Facebook Page). The musicians are excellent and the vocalist's has a contagiously happy stage personality, not to mention that he really gets old jazz. I was able to find some videos on YouTube. The video quality and audio is not too good, unfortunately, but I can definitely vouch for their great live performance.



Anyone that enjoys good music and finds him or herself in Bangkok should really try to get to the Saxophone Pub. You can reach it by BTS (Sky train), at Victory Monument station. When I visit Thailand again, this will be my most frequent waterhole.

Another nice place where I enjoyed jazz was at The Living Room, a lounge at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit Hotel. They have live jazz performances on Friday and Saturday evenings (maybe other nights too). Food and drinks are a little more pricey than elsewhere, but the performance is free and the classy ambiance is definitely worth it. Dress up a bit and go feel how it feels to live the high life.

I also went to this rustic little place called Brown Sugar. Apparently it is one of the first places in Thailand were one could hear live jazz; it has been going strong since 1985. I can't say that the performance I heard there was that great, but the food was nice and the place have a nice ambiance if you want to hang out with a group of friends.

Muay Thai Ring

Just a snapshot of a fighting ring at the Muay Thai stadium in Koh Samui, Thailand. I took it a while before the first fight started and as the spectators slowly dribbled in.

Koh Samui

After hanging around in Bangkok for a few days, visiting Jazz bars/lounges I decided to head out to Koh Samui, an island off the east coast of Thailand. Koh Samui is a tourist mecca, that provides the touristy attractions one can expect of Thailand, combined with the layedback enjoyment of a tropical island.

I haven't been doing much. Spend most of my days eating, reading and watching television. Wasting my time watching television might not seem like the thing to do while on holiday on a tropical island, but for me it is quite pleasant. I do not own a television, so just laying back and zoning out to a sci-fi channel is very relaxing to me, and that is the purpose of this second stretch of my holiday: to relax.

I've also gone scuba diving on Friday. I went with a scuba diving charter to another island about two hours from here and enjoyed two nice dives. It has been a year since I did my open water diving certification, so this was actually my first true dive since I got the certification, since the previous sea dives I did was actually part of the certification requirements. I did two dives on Friday, the first was more enjoyable. The second was also fun, but the actual dive sight did not impress me too much.

Today I went for a swim in the ocean. From the beach it looked like there is a sand bar about a kilometer into the ocean so I decided to swim to it. Only to find out, once I got there, that it was an optical illusion -- I was stuck a kilometer from the shore and exhausted. Luckily a yacht was close by so I hang onto it for a while to gain my strength back. After about 10 or 15 minutes I swam back to shore, but was fully exhausted when my toes could touch the sand. This was definitely one of the more stupid things I have done in my life.

I make for a very peculiar tourist on a tropical island. During the day I venture out in long sleeved shirts and walk around with a giant umbrella to protect me from the tropical sun. The other tourists are hardly dressed at all. They are salmon pink or terracota brown, just short of smelling thoroughly cooked. I'd rather walk around with my umbrella monstrousity and save my celtic skin from the damage.

Today I went to get measured for a suit. Tailor-made suits here are wonderfully affordable. Can't wait to see the final product.

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Bangkok, Vientiane, Luang Prabang

Wednesday morning I got up very early, put some final things in my bags and trudged through heavy reason to the bus stop. Got off at the airport shuttle bus station, went to Incheon International Airport and took a flight to Thailand. Slept over at a motel in Bangkok. The next day I flew to Laos. Slept over in Vientiane and flew to Luang Prabang, which used to be a French colony, this morning. I will stay here for a couple of days then travel to China, Kungmin City to be specific.

Tonight I'm staying over in a quaint little guesthouse, basically a wood cabin. At the moment I'm sitting in a coffee shop, enjoying a view of a great lazy brown river, sipping at my chocolate malt and enjoying the free wifi. (And this in a communist country. I have to reevaluate my stereotypes regarding communist regimes.)

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Thailand: Grand Palace / Temple

Some photos I took of the artwork that is part of the temple at the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand.

Thailand: Grand Palace

Some photos of the Grand Palace and surrounding architecture -- Bangkok, Thailand.

Thailand: Guardian Figures

On the second to last day of my trip in Thailand last month I went to the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The following are some photos of guardian statues I saw there.

Thailand -- Thai Elephant Research and Conservation Fund

Image Source

One afternoon while in Thailand we visited the Thai Elephant Center for Conservation in Saraburi Province, which is part of the Thai Elephant Research and Conservation Fund.

It was quite an interesting visit as we learned more about the Asian elephants and the relationships and conflicts between elephants and humans in Thailand. I was pleasantly surprised that this elephant-related visit should be part of our program. I was under the impression that our visit would be focussed solely on the health concerns of people; however, this visit to an animal conservation centre brought a delightful extra dimension to the trip.

The director of the centre gave us a presentation on Thailand’s elephant history and human-elephant conflict. He also discussed the various programs they ran on educating people – particularly the Thai youth – about elephants, saying that as the elephant is Thailand's icon, it is imperative that the next generation be educated on this representative animal. This includes a series of booklets, known as the Elephant Curriculum, that they publish to educate children on elephants, covering a whole array of elephant related topics such as elephant evolution, elephant physiology, elephant behaviour, elephants in religions, wild elephant conservation and the mahouts (traditional elephant trainers).

Finally we went on a fifteen minute elephant ride. Honestly, having grown up with horses I’ve never really seen the appeal in riding on an elephant and after having done it I still prefer horse riding. Nonetheless, I guess it is a unique enough experience with one sitting so high up. An elephant also moves quite differently from a horse.

In the photo is John and I. His mother is a doctor at our university and a researcher in Nutrition. She presented the session on Malnutrition during the Health Education Trip.

Thailand -- Maikeedfai in Nakhon Ratchasima

The day after hour visit at the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, during my trip in Thailand, our group visited an educational group focused on young children called Maikeedfai in Nakhon Ratchasima, headed by Mr Kui (his Facebook-profile). Maikeedfai is one of many small programs that gets funding from the THPF. Maikeedfai helps to get young children involved in healthy after school activities. They explained that most Thai children just go home after school and sits in front of the television the whole day watching TV or playing video games. Basically Maikeedfai has an after school care centre that gets children out in nature or involved in fun, healthy, and education activities.

 (I made the clay kitten and pony.)

After showing us some of the ways they keep children busy (like how to make bubbles, clay and other messy stuff) we departed to one of Maikeedfai’s other projects – Sex Education.

We went to a school where Maikeedfai had worked on Sex Education. One of the grades had prepared a play which they performed for us. The moral of the play was basically to wait, and if you have sex, to have it safely – use condoms. As is commonly known, the sex industry is lucrative in Thailand and children are tempted into it at an unfortunate young age. Part of the problem, we were told, are that parents do not educate their children on sex. A western man I spoke to who have lived in Thailand for about a decade told me that incest and molestation is also very prevalent in the rural areas, which just increases the problem of skewed perceptions of sex at a very early age among many Thai people – especially those coming from rural areas.

Thailand -- Thai Health Promotion Foundation & "Sweet Enough"

On the Wednesday of my Thailand trip (August 4th) our group visited the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (THPF) in Bangkok. The vice-chairperson of the THPF, professor Supreeda Adulyanon, gave us a presentational overview of what the THPF is about. The Thai government has come up with an ingenious way to improve the health of its citizens by taxing cigarettes and alcohol and giving that sin tax directly to the THPF to apply to health promotion programs. If I remember correctly, 5% of every sale of alcohol is given directly to the THPF on a weekly basis. This ensures that the THPF has a continuous input of funds to put towards thirteen different “plans”:

1. Tobacco Consumption Control, 
2. Alcohol Consumption Control, 
3. Traffic Injuries and Disaster Prevention, 
4. Health Risk Factors Control, 
5. Health of Specific Group of Population, 
6. Health Promotion in Community, 
7. Children Youth and Family Health, 
8. Health Promotion in Organizations, 
9. Physical Exercise and Sports for Health, 
10. Social Marketing and Communication, 
11. Open Grants and Innovative Projects, 
12. Health Promotion through Health Service Systems, and 
13. Supportive Systems and Mechanisms Development for Health Promotion. 

Examples of these programs in action are advertising campaigns against drinking and driving, quit-smoking programs, school education programs to reduce the consumption of refined sugars, HIV/AIDS and safe sex education programs and so on.

The THPF attributes their success to the "Triangle that Moves a Mountain"-strategy. Basically it is the implementation of policy making based on scientific studies and motivated by social activism. For instance, they would provide scientific studies showing how advertising aimed at the youth creates young smokers. Then they would get social groups motivated against such advertising, which in turn will persuade the government to implement policies against cigarette advertising aimed at the youth.

After lunch Dr Pat Chatiketu, director of the THPF’s brand communication, spoke to us about one of the projects called “Sweet Enough.” This project focuses on reducing the amount of refined sugars consumed by children. You can visit the Sweet Enough website at Maikinwan.Com, although it is mostly in Thai. As part of the Sweet Enough campaign, they have a mascot called Noynoi – a little pink ant that prefers natural healthy foods over processed unhealthy foods. With an arsenal of Noynoi books, games, and videos they entertain and educate children in the ways of better health.

That afternoon we left for Saraburi to join the Seangwittaya Elementary School where they have implemented a No Sweet Food Project into their school curriculum, based on the THPF’s “Sweet Enough” concept. It was quite heartening to see such active promotion of healthy living amongst the children. We were treated a little bit like celebrities, which I though unnecessary – we’re only a group of university lecturers and students wanting to learn more about health education in a foreign country – but I guess it was a way for the school to show off and be proud of the great work they are doing.

Thailand -- Street Musician in a Traditional Market

A blind street musician performs in a traditional market in Muaklek, Saraburi Province, Thailand, August 2010. His performance echoes solemnly, yet eerily cheerful, through the crowded market place, mixing with the local sounds of people walking, talking and bargaining in the late afternoon. Between the smells of raw meat, tropical fruits, fried foods, new clothes, leather and plastic produce, and elephant faeces, wafts this buskers surreal mix of electronic-traditional music. This is the sound of a rural Thailand; a Thailand far removed from the tourist's hotspots.

Watch and listen to his performance here and please cast your positive vote. If this video wins, it will mean a video camera for the Pyp-online project. You may vote for the video once a day until the winner is announced towards the end of next month.

Thailand -- Malnutrition

Image from Aangirfan.

One of the topics we looked at during the Health Education Trip to Thailand was malnutrition.

Malnutrition was defined as:

a state or disease caused by sustained deficiency, excess or imbalance of the supplies of calories, nutrients, or both, that are available for use in the body.

What I found interesting about this definition is that malnutrition is not caused only by a deficiency, but can also be caused by an excess. Forms of malnutrition is therefore not only under-nutrition or a specific deficiency, it could also be the cause of one nutrient which is in excess, i.e. over-nutrition.

Malnutrition can be classified according to its duration (either acute or chronic) and its causes, which could be direct or indirect. Direct causes may be because of an inadequacy or imbalance, or because the body is not able to properly utilize the food. Indirect causes are things like poverty, the environment, demographic and social / cultural issues.

Thailand -- Natural Remedies and Herbs

Image from A Mom in Red High Heels

The Health Education Practice Trip at the Mission Health Promotion Centre (MHPC) in Thailand includes a session on herbs. Most of the herbs discussed were plants indigenous to Thailand so it is not really relevant to us not living in South East Asia. I’ll just focus on some of the more common herbal and natural remedies discussed.

Many of the points mentioned focussed on cleansing the digestive track. One such a way is to start your day with a solution based on the juice of two freshly squeezed lemons and a teaspoon of healthy salt in a litre of lukewarm / room temperature water. Drink this first thing in the morning. This will flush your digestive system and cause bowl movement within a short time. Tea made of green papaya functions as a laxative and was also suggested as an intestine cleanser.

Another interesting cleansing concept, which I have not heard of before, is known as “oil pulling” – an ancient Indian natural therapy. In the morning, before breakfast, pour a tablespoon of cold pressed oil (e.g. sunflower, olive oil, sesame oil) in your mouth and swish it around in your mouth. The website Oilpulling.Com explains the process: “In the morning before breakfast on an empty stomach you take one tablespoon in the mouth but do not swallow it. Move Oil Slowly in the mouth as rinsing or swishing and Dr Karach puts it as 'sip, suck and pull through the teeth' for fifteen to twenty minutes. This process makes oil thoroughly mixed with saliva. Swishing activates the enzymes and the enzymes draw toxins out of the blood. The oil must not be swallowed, for it has become toxic. As the process continues, the oil gets thinner and white. If the oil is still yellow, it has not been pulled long enough. It is then spit from the mouth, the oral cavity must be thoroughly rinsed and mouth must be washed thoroughly. Just use normal tap water and good old fingers to clean.”

One of the main focuses of this session on herbs was consuming lots of chlorophyll. It is similar in composition than blood, but the base element is not iron, but magnesium. For this reason, chlorophyll is a powerful alkalinizer. Chlorophyll juice can be made by blending green leaves (e.g. spinach) in a food processor. This juice can be made more palatable with coconut or lime juice. Over the last couple of months I’ve personally started the habit of making “Green Smoothies.” I blend different greens with soy milk. I also add a banana or two to give it a “smoothy” consistency. I usually have a Green Smoothy as part of my breakfast.

A more common herb discussed was turmeric, which is an anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and liver stimulant. I’ll definitely be adding more turmeric in my cuisines. They suggested adding it to my milk, but I’m not sure if I’m up for that.

A natural remedy I have never heard of before is distilled organic Wood Vinegar, which is good for fresh wounds, pimples, burns, mouth sores and skin conditions. On the Internet I found out that it can also be used internally, although we didn’t discuss internal uses at MHPC. It seems like a good remedy to have in one’s medicine cabinet, so I bought me a bottle.

Thailand -- NEWSTART

The Health Education Practice Trip to Thailand was not merely a vacation, but an educational excursion focussed on public health and included focus on natural health therapies as well as health education promotion. On the Monday, Tuesday and Friday morning of the trip we covered hydrotherapy, calisthenics, massaging, and diet—specifically malnutrition. In this post I’m shortly going to cover “NEWSTART”.

The first health workshop started with the idea that generally health is a choice. With time people either accumulate health or accumulate disease, depending on how they increase or abuse their vital force. The health philosophy at the Mission Health Promotion Centre (MHPC) in Thailand is based on the NEWSTART Lifestyle Program which strives to create homeostasis (correct balance) in the person. (For years now, I have based the Health Principles for my Taekwon-Do group on the NEWSTART philosophy.)

The N in NEWSTART stands for Nutrition. At the MHPC the menu is plant-based, focussed on whole grains, seeds, and nuts. The hard shells of nuts, it is believed, is an indicator that we ought not eat too many nuts at a time. Further emphasis is put on fruits and vegetables. Fruits, especially, helps with fighting off the aging process because they are high in anti-oxygens. Inflammation and oxygenation contributes to aging, so consuming lots of anti-inflammatory and anti-oxygen rich foods are important. Foods should not be refined or too processed, and be rich in fibre. Meat and refined sugar is avoided.

Exercise is important for the health of the whole body, especially the respiratory (lungs) and circulatory (heart) systems. Exercise should include stretching and resistance training as well as moderate aerobic exercise. At the MHPC we got up every morning around 5:30 and met at 6am for around an hour of brisk walking in the beautiful surrounding areas. By the time we got back, everyone was ready for breakfast at 7am.

Emphasis was also put on Water and the importance of hydration. Apart from other normal physiological processes, the consumption of deep fried foods, salty and sugary foods all contribute to dehydration. Juicy foods (i.e. fresh fruits) are important. And of course, regular drinking of water – six or more glasses a day is preferable.

The importance of Sunshine was discussed. Not only was the value of vitamin D highlighted, but also the effect of light on ones mental health.

Temperance means moderation in the good things and avoidance of the bag things, including negative emotions like worry, anger, hatred, jealousy, and so on, which all lowers the immune system.
The value of fresh Air was repeated. We looked at breathing exercises and also laugh therapy.

Rest and Relaxation was stressed, focussing on around 7-8 hours of daily sleep. Over sleeping is to be avoided just as much as under sleeping.

The last T, refers to Trust in the Divine.

Thai Dogs

Thailand has some pretty ugly dogs. Many of them seem to be roving around wildly, and even in packs! The photos show some of the better looking dogs, believe it or not?!, that I saw during my trip.

Thailand -- Day One, Mission Health Promotion Centre

The Saturday evening before I left for Thailand I arrived home quite late. I still had some packing to do and so did not go to bed at all. Around 4:30 that morning I left for Nowon, an area in Seoul about 20-30 minutes from where I live. From there some friends and I were able to catch an Airport Limousine, basically a shuttle bus that commutes between the airport and certain stops in Seoul.

I was quite tired by the time the bus came but it wasn’t comfortable enough to nap properly on the way to the airport. At the airport we met up with the rest of the sixteen people whom went together on the “Health Education Practise Trip to Thailand.” The members included students and lecturers from the masters course in Public Health, some family and friends, and me. I went along as another representative lecturer from our university and because natural health therapies are one of my big interests.

On the plane I didn’t get much sleep either and the two hour van ride to the centre we would stay for most of the week was also quite uncomfortable.

At long last we arrived at the Mission Health Promotion Centre (MHPC), in Muaklek, Saraburi Provence. The MHPC was a wonderful surprise. We didn’t expect anything like this at all. It set in a lush tropic setting, with beautiful facilities. The air conditioned rooms were luxurious, the food delectable and the swimming pool lavish.

It has been years since I last had such a great time swimming. I grew up on a farm where we had a nice big swimming pool, as well as a natural dam, where I could swim to my hearts delight as a child. Having grown up with a private swimming pool, I’m somewhat spoiled with having so much water space for oneself. In Korea the public swimming pools are uncomfortably crowded so I haven’t had an opportunity to swim in a big swimming pool like this in years. The last time I was able to spend so much time in the water was in 2003 when I lived in a holiday resort that had a swimming pool, albeit not a very big one.

The MHPC focuses on healthy living and serves a completely vegetarian, nearly vegan, menu that uses very little oil. The food blazed with Thai herbs and flavours. I haven’t enjoyed eating this much in a very long time. Korean cuisine is rather bland compared to Thai food. There is also a grand variety of tropical fruits. Many of the fruits I had there for the first time, like custard fruit, durian, jack fruit, dragon eye, and others of which the names escaped me.

Thailand: Quick Update

My time in Thailand has been good so far. I don't have easy access to the Internet, so I will write a more thorough update when I return next week.

I've visited a variety of interesting projects ranging from reducing sugar intake among children, sex education, and elephant conservation. I've also attended sessions on Thai herbal medicine, malnutrition, and so on. My cultural sight-seeing has been limited so far, although I have seen school children performing plays, elderly people perform a traditional dance in honour of the Moon Goddess and ate fabulous healthy vegetarian Thai cuisine. I've also demonstrated a Taekwon-Do pattern ("Choong-Moo") to some high officials in the Thai ministry, related to the police force.

Tomorrow we are going to Bangkok to visit a hospital there. Saturday I'll go to a Sabbath-keeping community (where I'm likely to sing an Afrikaans song -- "God is liefde, juig ons harte"). In the afternoon I'm scheduled to visit the Grand Palace and in the evening some famous open market. Sunday we'll go to some crocodile farm and famous rose garden, although I'm planning to sneak away and visit the ITF Taekwon-dojang.

I'll be sure to post some photos with my future updates.

Thai Health Promotion Foundation

This coming week I'm going to visit Thailand. I'm going with a group of graduate students that will be doing their practical course work in Thailand in association with the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. I'll be joining with them in many of the classes and outings and look forward to it as much of the course will be on natural remedial health care, which is a personal interest of mine. I also hope to do some sightseeing and intend to visit one of the local Taekwon-Do gyms.

The Thai Health Promotion Foundation is doing wonderful work in Thailand in creating healthy living awareness. They also have hilarious advertising campaigns. Watch the video below to get a taste of it:

Fickle Summer Plans

Image Source: Reuters

Since I kind of decided not to go to England during my Summer Break anymore (hoping to save some money), I thought I could rather have an inexpensive holiday in Thailand. I've never been to Thailand and have only heard good things of it from friends that have enjoyed Thai hospitality. Of course, visiting Thailand won't happen either. Thailand is currently experiencing the worst violence it has experienced in 20 years! Bangkok is up in flames.

Instead I might go to the Philippines. I've never really been interested in the Philippines (apart from learning Philippino stick fighting); however, a Korean friend of mine is currently there--his company sent him there on an engineering project. It would be nice to visit him and maybe I could go do some scuba diving. Apparently it is a good place for it.