July 22, 2023
Days C3-6: More Time Off the Bike
Sat July 22
It occurred to me that these "rest days" were in fact quite busy. While there was still plenty of chill time by the pool, the reality is that I was playing covid catchup. There was just so much that had to be done. When it comes to international lifestyle, there are several homes if you will, bases that need attending to in different countries.
The main task for today was to jump on someone else's late cancel and head to a last-minute appointment with the registered psychologist. He was nothing short of brilliant. This was reflected in his business setup: He ran things out of a chill office not far from the BTS station. You would never find it unless you were actively looking for the office. People would come in and out all the time. He was running behind schedule which is no big deal, so I chilled out in the lobby area with the AC. I did some quick checking online and he had earned 5-star reviews from everyone, not to mention a lot of reviews which said the Bangkok hospitals were useless. He was known for a casual and relaxed conversational style and the reality I got was 100% the same as the reviews.
This got me realizing right away I had made the right decision. The psych industry is a billion dollar business and your hard earned money is better off going to the little guys. All these mega hospitals would do is schedule zoom sessions.
Not so with this guy. I wanted breakthroughs and solutions to get past this trauma and he had them. We established a great rapport off the bat, formed by our shared views on covid. I sensed he was genuine with those opinions and not just talking like that to me while shifting to different views with his next customer. He mentioned that covid is a cold and he also dissed Fauci. So we were off to a great start! As part of this general conversation, he also said that things in Thailand weren't as bad as they appeared. One really insightful thing he said was, "Many people continue to wear masks because they want to hide their faces in public, and covid made a convenient excuse to do so."
He mentioned that during the pandemic it was still very possible to go out and order food, even bars were open that paid off the police. There were few checkpoints on the street, and certainly no lockdowns. Couples went on dates secretely and found many creative ways to break the rules. As in other countries, the "rule" was you couldn't mix with people outside your own household or circle. But people easily found ways around that. All of this I had long suspected was the case, and I was now hearing it firsthand.
He then steered the conversation to the main focus which was the Shanghai lockdown itself and I told him several horror stories of it, mainly focusing on the lack of food and the government officials banging on the door with rice and vegetable handouts. I also talked about the green fences and the guards posted outside keeping watch on us.
He asked a few more questions, but I got the sense he wasn't interested in your typical psychobabble where you focus on what happened during the past. The major breakthrough he helped me with was reframing the term PTSD into post traumatic growth. I thought this was quite brilliant. From there he helped me brainstorm several solutions on how to develop this post-traumatic growth. I then came to realize that minimalism philosophy is the direct result of this.
What I like about this is that it doesn't deny the trauma happened or justify that it was acceptable. We both tried to figure out the reasons for the Shanghai lockdown. We could not. The only thing we got was that it was political. But he said to think of it this way, it is just like using resistance to build muscles.
He also seemed to think that it will be a lot more difficult to repeat lockdowns in the future because the public wised up to the ridiculousness of what happened. They won't be fooled twice. I wasn't convinced however because my view is that the public are like sheep and they just follow orders. Plus the government has all the tools they learned from the pandemic to control people if they want to again. Which "public" are we talking about then?
He said I was definitely not the first guy to come see him about this. Many expats had in fact quit China and moved to Thailand. I knew some of them also. All in all it was an extremely productive session and since he offered a package for 9000 baht with 3 sessions, I decided to schedule two more before the end of this trip and tackle some spinoff issues.
He ran a relaxed business and was wearing jeans, and the most chilled psychologist I ever met. But don't be mistaken, not just anybody can do what this guy does. He has a PhD and I verified all his credentials. He is legit.
Sun July 23
Another beautiful day. With all the rain lately, it really cooled things down and the early morning was sublime. Taking a page out of Atomic Habits, I wanted to continue decent sleep habits which includes getting up early and not staying out too late, even on holidays. This had kept up so far the entire trip and the advantage is you can get so much more done in the mornings.
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At that hour there were no motorbike taxis so I found a sawngthaew instead. Once at Home Pro, a local pea green bus was waiting for passengers so I just hopped on. Then I got to my destination with time to spare. One new thing I noticed was convenience stores right inside BTS stations, that is to say inside the turnstiles. A brilliant idea and surely a killer business.
This time the plan was to meet up with some Bangkok expats and meet new friends, and that succeeded greatly. I was invited to lunch in the area by Sukumvhit known for where all the rich people live. Some parts reminded me of Shanghai actually with the tall apartment buildings.
We had a great time swapping expat stories. The consensus, once again, was that more and more expats were moving to Bangkok while they were still in mass exodus from Shanghai and Hong Kong too for that matter. Are we beginning to see a pattern here?
Once I can sort out what I need to with the condo I'll be back in Bangkok for more and will surely meet many new people. I used to do this frequently before the lockdown but ever since then it has been hard due to an irrational fear of strangers. He really liked how I handled the Internations event earlier and he said keep that up for sure, this is exactly what is meant by post-traumatic growth.
I also went for a Thai massage, and it was ridiculous because there were so many to choose from. I'll never understand why they're all in certain areas yet when you venture off the tourist trail they're impossible to find. Do locals not enjoy their own world famous massages?
Even so, the meditative atmosphere and the music had true healing effects. You can truly love people once you love yourself, and it was at that precise moment that I realized I did. After all these years of beating myself up for no reason and trying to be a people pleaser, this trip was the turning point I had been waiting for.
Later it was time to head back to the Sananwan swimming pool and start planning the rest of the week. I would end up leaving most of my stuff behind and potentially switch bicycles to lighten the load.
Mon July 24
There was still the main bike to fix and I wanted to swing a dentist appointment in the same day. The journey would continue to Pattaya on Tuesday.
All the while I wanted to keep an eye on the political situation. If you recall back in May, the new Prime Minister candidate won the election by a landslide but last week the constitutional court deprived him of his duties. There is a huge backstory to all this I'm trying to figure out and is extremely complicated. Pita even said, "the people won halfway." As sad as this is, it's not unexpected within the current global order.
It was yet another beautiful day on Monday and I had woken up with the best sleep of the trip. This was becoming *the* trip of a lifetime. One of the key takeways I was getting is that you have to embody the changes you want to see in the world, even if things don't quite go your way.
Fittingly enough that was the order of the day. First of all I tried to get the bike fixed near the Sananwan guesthouse but the closest shop 'Bike Freedom' was closed. No matter then, I would try again some other time. I then did the usual mix of public transport to head into the city for some shopping but I couldn't find what I was looking for. Almost all the vendors said 'mai mi', basically we don't have it. Then the dentist finally got back to my email and said we have an appointment tomorrow morning, not today.
It doesn't matter. There was time to head to another brutal fitness class led by the same coach as on Friday. This time he was more chill. The workout, however, was not. It ended up being 2 minutes of work and 30 seconds of rest per station, total 14 stations. Just one lap around.
When it came to the rowing machine, he told me, "You better row 500 meters, sir." Surprisingly I did that. He also seemed surprised because nobody else in the class had hit this target. But he didn't know that I have been doing F45 for years and the rowing machine is the one station I could kick ass on. Unfortunately that gassed me out so bad for the next station it was impossible for me to do skipping rope, and I did some half-assed jumping jacks or anything else to fill the 2 minutes. Other stations that ruined me included the devil's press and the mountain climbers with the bear crawls.
Famished after that class, I found some food at Foodland downstairs and then fought the insane Bangkok rush hour traffic back to the guesthouse. One of the huge drawbacks of the 4:30pm slot for these fitness classes is that you're in the middle of rush hour when it is done.
Anyways I got back and started packing for the next leg to Pattaya.
Tues July 26
Things didn't quite go according to plan once it took awhile to locate the dental clinic. It also meant dealing with the hassle of the Bangkok traffic which was really starting to get on my nerves. The whole point of staying outside the city was to chill and avoid that but here I was in the thick of it.
To be fair, there are zillions of dental clinics and I could have easily found another one. Why I insist on coming back to the exact same places year after year, I don't know. It's the same with the hospitals and doctors, the choices are overwhelming. The way I see things is that if you find one that works, might as well stick with it.
They were in a brand new building and had just moved in literally two days ago. The front desk staff and dentist recognized me right away and afterwards they laughed and said, "We hope to see you in 6 months, not 3 years."
I mentioned that during the pandemic of course I found alternative dentists in Shanghai including one that had temporarily solved a major tooth problem. That was the focus of today's visit actually. They were pushing for a root canal, in much the same way as the original dentist did when the injury happened a year ago.
What happened basically was I fell off the bicycle in the rain and smashed my teeth on the ground.
I had been avoiding a root canal so far, but this put me in a real dilemma: if it was inevitable that I had to get one, it would be better to do it here with the cheaper prices. But if I kept waiting and the tooth got back to normal (they said that's a distinct possibility) then it wouldn't be needed at all.
All that discussion and the appointments running behind schedule meant that the final bike leg to Pattaya was unlikely to happen today. By the time I would get there, the juristic office of my condo would be closed and I was hoping to swing it so I could actually stay there. So it was an easy decision: tomorrow.
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