Two Months Later

Let's skip apologies for my not posting for a while, because that's no way to preface a great second post to a great new blog.

I say this blog is great because it's the only one like it around. Google blogs on Bangkok and peruse the limited slew of webzines such as Bangkokrecorder.com. Their content often reads like subliminal adverts for the latest mega-discotech club that's popped up downtown, or perhaps for a ritzy restaurant that will undoubtably be labeled "hi-so". Like their printed counterparts (see GuRu magazine), these boring sites are inevitably doomed.

Furthermore, Soi Seven does not track the DJ/House 'scene', nor will you find novel-length entries of a 'c-razy night out' on Patpong. Of course, that doesn't mean this blog is any morally superior to any other news outlet in Thailand--though that's no difficult achievement.

Now, to catch everyone up:
-Summer's gone.
And sadly, so is our long time house guest Andy Shapiro.
Here's what he did: BiodieselBlog

-Thaksin Shinawatra, the ex-Prime Minister and soon ex-placeholder-PM, is still loathed by all in Bangkok and loved by all who're not (in Bangkok). (Assassination plot)

-I can read and write Thai at a kindergartener's pace. Look forward to bi-lingual blog posts?

-We've weekended to Ko Samet, Khao Yai National Park and Ayuthaya. Mountain biked all of them. (Photos)

Consider this post as a shocking BLIP on Soi Seven's imaginary heart-rate monitor. Yes, we're alive. My upcoming post, probably tomorrow, shall be an expanded version of a recent tale that I hope you all will enjoy.

My aim is to show you Bangkok through stories that tie together all the 'little' things, like the sights on our ride home from work every day, by sewing several 'big' stories together in time--like the politcally-incorrect, Thai vs. "English-speakers" soccer matches held bi-weekly at our school.

Sawatdii, Yin Dee dtwaan rap. Welcome to what is.

First Whats Up:
-thailand's on the verge of another political coup (TheNation, Bangkok),
-we live amongst elephants (IrishExaminer),
-and the non-spoken dress code after 8pm for our street is a decorative male dress (Sarong)... but only if you're over 60 and Male (?)

Soi Seven is a journal, a hopefully colorful (and probably pointless) news plug, and a window to the avenue for which it's named.

The 7th avenue of Phetchaburi Road in the Ratchathewi district is Soi 7 and is a neighborhood to us and many others in Bangkok.

Phetchaburi Road is a main artery here in the pulsing 'heart' of Bangkok and, is most always clogged. Nevertheless, as snippets and pictures will tell, the lore of Bangkok traffic is somewhat like a stereotype, as there are many in Thailand, which you digest slowly and only after rooming with the city for a bit... squeezing through its narrow footpaths and dining in its cafes that line our avenues.

It's a blog, but I don't know what that is, yet, and if anything
it's worth having as a journal for ourselves, even if noone else ever bothers to peek. We have ample photo uploading space

too, I've been told, so look forward to multi-media'd posts.

I made it--Joey--for the sake of saving the little bits, and for all interested in the Know around our lives this summer, around metro-Bangkok and of our weekend trips to whatever and wherever.

And, in the nature of disclaimers and introductions, as anyone who has read through travel guides to Asia knows, Asian speak different languages ;), and specific terms/labels are often awkward if not perplexing when read in a comfy American office chair, and seen typed in such an abstract font as Times New Roman (or any English font for that matter :). So, I've found a neat talking Thai-Engl dictionary Online, which I'll link to now and again so all the odd names of places we've visited and thing's we've eaten won't stump you too much...


That said, i would hope it won't be a travel log of what we 'do' day-to-day (i.e. a recap of EVERYTHING)--no one enjoys laundry lists of beautiful beaches,

exotic foods, sightings of monitor lizards or run-ins with the Royal Thai Police, but I assure you the brightest highlights and oddities will pepper these bi-weekly posts as they should, from time to time--hopefully in good taste 8)

I want you to know our Bangkok!

" Sawatdii " is Hello, hear it

" Han-lo! " is to say Hello on the phone (and, i think, hilarious). try to say it

" yin dee dtaawn rap " is Welcome, hear it