Blog Entries

Joining the Queen Victoria

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:46:24 +0100

I joined the Cunard Queen Victoria yesterday after a very long series of flights from Sacramento. At the airport, I met the ship's youth coordinator, a nice British guy in his 30s named Paul Trotter, who has worked aboard the Queen Victoria since its first voyage a little less than an year ago. We shared a taxi to the hotel, and the driver turned out to be crazy. He flashed his lights at cars driving too slow, angering one driver who tried to hit us. That turned into a yelling and honking match [...]

The Norwegian Medical

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:00:00 +0100

I've written before about the excellent and inexpensive medical care at private hospitals in Thailand. My experience at Bangkok's Samitivej Hospital reinforced my overwhelming positive impression of medical services in Thailand. Samitivej is one of two hospitals in Bangkok where I could get the exam required by my cruise line employer.

Medical certificates for cruise ships are good for two years, and crew members joining a vessel must present one that will remain valid for the entire du [...]

No Explanations This Time

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:00:00 +0100

Somewhere far above Vietnam, I sit in the tail end of an Airbus A340-400 watching Mamma Mia! on my in-seat entertainment console. I have left behind Thailand, which faces an uncertain future as factions vie for political power in the capital and ripples from the unrest and the global economic crisis wash up on the country's shores as diminishing prospects for a stable and prosperous future. I'm headed toward an American that less than a day ago elected Barack Obama as President, opening a hopefu [...]

Associate Editor Sails Away

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:00:00 +0100

My farewell letter to Phuket Post (as submitted):

With the current issue of Phuket Post, Associate Editor Robert Pratt departs the newsmagazine after leading it for the past eight months during a period of transition. Mr Pratt leaves Phuket for his native California, where he will ship out at the end of November for a position playing jazz saxophone aboard the Cunard cruise liner the Queen Victoria.

"I take away vivid memories of the unique people of Phuket," [...]

An Early Goodbye to Phuket Post

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:00:00 +0100

Despite my dissatisfaction with working at Phuket Post, I have loved working with all of the people there. They have made it fun for me, and I’m glad to have had a chance to get to know them. I continue to be amazed by all the good work the nat [...]

Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2008, Day 7: Exploding Gods

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:00:00 +0100

During the Vegetarian Festival, each of Phuket City's several shrines mounts a parade into downtown, and the prime weekend days are reserved for the two biggest. Duk and I had intended to arrive at the Bang Neow parade much earlier, but we caught some exciting moments at the tail end.

Though the Samkong shrine's parade two days earlier had plenty of firecrackers, the insane din from firecrackers during this parade was a couple orders of magnitude heavier. It was painful to walk up the s [...]

Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2008, Day 3: Food, Glorious Food

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:00:00 +0100

Yes, of course this is quite late and out-of-sequence. But once the Vegetarian Festival got really going, I was out most nights and didn't have much time to write up my observations, much less process my photos. In the next day or so, I'll finish posting my account of this year's festival. And down the road I hope to have more time to dedicate to blogging so I can have more timely content.

Not much happened on the second day of the festival, except that Duk told me I should take care n [...]

Sign of the Times II

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:00:00 +0100

James Fallows rips John McCain for running a stuff-and-nonsense campaign for president. I've followed Fallows for a long time, and I think he's one of America's greatest journalists. I've never seen him give such spanking to a public official before. I definitely agree with him.

Another Great Experience in a Thai Hospital

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:00:00 +0100

First off: a warning. I'm gonna get medical on your ass. Or my ass, rather. This post details my second experience in a Thai hospital, and the result is overwhelmingly positive. But the back story and the details are a little -- well, not so much gory as unpleasant.

This morning I dropped into Bangkok Hospital Phuket to see about [...]

Sign of the Times

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:00:00 +0100

Duk and I went out to Samkong shrine last night to pay respect to the gods as part of the Phuket Vegetarian Festival. As always, I drew special attention from local Thais manning the various stations where we knelt to pray and offer incense. A farrang following rituals at Buddhist temples or Chinese shrines is very conspicuous.

At the final station, the helper asked me where I was from. When he heard that I was an American, he spoke in halting English. "American banks," he said, [...]

Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2008, Day 5: I Love a Parade

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:00:00 +0100

Since we live along the main route from Samkong to the center of Phuket City, the first of the several traditional parades for the Phuket Vegetarian Festival ran right past our apartment. Even more conveniently, it came by just before breakfast as I was getting ready for work. It had stepped off from Samkong shrine at 7:19am, an auspicious moment, and covered the 500m or so to our apartment in about 15 minutes.

Leading the parade were school children carrying yellow flags, the emblem of [...]

Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2008, Day 1: Up Goes the Ko-Teng Pole

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0100

Up the street from our apartment, about 300m to a T-intersection then left for another 100m, sits the Samkong Shrine, a Chinese temple and one of the focal points of the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival celebrations. I didn't have any sense of how big a deal the festival is for Phuket until the couple of weeks beforehand when workers erected booths lining the street in front of the shrine. Lights were strung across the street. Yellow flags, a traditional symbol of the vegetarian festival, st [...]

And Now For Something Completely Different

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0100

The prospect of returning to my country as it struggles with the greatest financial crisis the world has ever seen is strangely appealing. Somehow I feel that I want to be there to go through it with my fellow Americans. The thought that I might return to a country in the midst of a transition between President George Bush to President Barack Obama makes me even more enthusiastic.

Yes, I've decided to return to California. My main reasons for leaving Phuket are that my employment here h [...]

Some Thoughts on the Financial Crisis and US Power

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0100

While staying up far too late to watch news from the US a couple days ago, I ended up in an interesting discussion about politics with my sister Cathee. During our IM chat, I spun out my thoughts about the paradigm shift I think the financial crisis represents for the role of the US in the world:

i'm convinced that we're at a point where our country faces a completely new reality ... this financial crisis is the end of the hegemony the us had held over the world since the ussr crumbled [...]

Bailout Negotiations and the Debate: A Defining Day for the US

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0100

I don't usually go to sleep so late, but last night I found myself awake at 2am watching the news from the US. When Duk and I returned from the gym about 10pm, Bill Hemmer on Fox News Channel was bugging out with all of the news of the still-young day: renewed negotiations on Capitol Hill over the collapsed financial bailout bill, a skittish New York Stock Exchange and the drama leading up to the first presidential debate between senators Barack Obama and John McCain.

It felt like a def [...]

We Are Not Amused

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0100

Yes, the recent lapse in my daily posts started with a head cold, which took me out for three days of nothing but sleep (and a visa run to Ranong). But several other events came down in recent days, including one related to this cryptic clue. Of course, I'll tell all soon.

Visa Run to Ranong

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0100

I did eventually make it to Ranong, and I got my new entry stamp. Much of the van ride up and back was a blur, as I slept the whole time with a heavy head cold coming on. But the ferry ride was quite spectacular.

We arrived at the dock after having lunch in town and had to get exit stamps before we boarded our boat -- the only one with an enclosed cabin, thankfully, among a flotilla of longtail boats with no shade. The immigration checkpoint is the most laid-back one that I've ever seen [...]

Phuket Post No. 89: 19 September-2 October 2008

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0100

At this p [...]

Another Day, Another Culture Shock

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0100

On a gloomy, overcast morning, I stood outside for an hour beginning at 6:30am. I read RSS newsfeeds on my iPhone while I waited for the minibus to pick me up and take me to Ranong, Burma so I could get a new 90-day entry stamp on my visa.

But the minivan never showed. I called the company that arranged the visa run at 7:30am only to learn that the driver of the minivan thought I had cancelled and never stopped at the pickup location. So no visa run for me today. I hopped on my motorbik [...]

Festival of the Moon in Phuket City

rpratt@wordandsound.com — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:00:00 +0100

Five days ago on Sunday, one of Duk's massage clients told him about a concert of traditional singing and dancing in Phuket City. The concert was part of the Wai Pra Chan festival to respect the moon. Phuket has a strong Chinese influence, and Duk said the festival came from the Chinese tradition, when the people would gather to offer moon cakes and fruit and to wear Chinese costumes in hopes that the moon would bring good fortune and wealth.

So after sunset, we took the motorbike to th [...]