Annual Immigration Nightmare

I am relieved to have successfully completed this year’s annual Immigration Office ordeal.  I got my Extension of Stay in the Kingdom based on retirement for one more year.  New hoops to jump through (as in every single year), new unannounced paperwork requirements, etc.  It is always my worst headache of the year.  I will spare those details. 

It has been blazing hot and humid here, week after week.  Standing in the shade for only five minutes looking for a taxi to Immigration made me drenched in sweat.  The new Immigration Office has great air-conditioning, and as I waited for over two hours I got thoroughly chilled.  That was not that bad, as it is a rare experience here, but I did shiver toward the end.  After finishing my business I reluctantly walked out again into the blazing heat, with the likely prospect of having to walk down the road to the main highway for a taxi home.  But I completely lucked out – a taxi had just discharged passengers and was now empty.  And nicely air conditioned.  I returned home cool and dry. 

-Zenwind.
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Fire at CentralWorld complex

There was a fire yesterday in downtown Bangkok at the CentralWorld complex, one of the biggest shopping complexes in Asia, but it was not overly catastrophic despite there being a couple of deaths. 

I have gone to CentralWorld a lot during my stay in Thailand, but not nearly as much as I go to the Siam Paragon shopping center which is a block or two away.  (I go to Siam Paragon more often because it is at the very hub of Bangkok’s elevated rail system, the “Skytrain”, and extremely convenient for movies, shopping, etc., before taking the train elsewhere during my day in town.  CentralWorld, on the other hand, is a bit harder to get to and requires a walk along an elevated walkway.) 

CentralWorld is huge, the biggest shopping center I’ve ever been to, and I actually have to navigate it with a store map and my wrist compass.  I only go to the original mall building, which is big enough for me.  It has a big cinema complex on about the seventh floor, as well as good bookstores (Asia Books and Kinokunia), and excellent sports shops.  It is a monster building, and they change stores so often I cannot keep up.  I might visit it only once every three or four months. 

Yesterday’s fire happened in an adjacent part of the vast complex, a 57-floor hotel, and it was put out quickly.  Parts of the complex may be closed for a while, and I’m not sure how the separate original CentralWorld mall is affected or when it will be open again. 

During the 2010 Red Shirt riots this original CentralWorld mall was set on fire by the rioters.  The Red Shirts had set up their main camp in the streets right close to it, and the mall had allowed the protestor/rioters to use some of the building’s groundfloor restrooms.  But when the Army came in to clear the streets, some Red Shirt assholes set a fire in the building, and we could see the smoke from up here in Nonthaburi.  When it finally re-opened the smell was there for a long time. 

In other news, it reaches at least 100 degrees F every day, and our nighttime lows are in the high 80s with a wicked humidity all the time.  Even the Thais are complaining. 

-Zenwind.
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