Recently, I participated in a 10k running event organised by Srinakarinwirot University called SWU Run Together ‘24. It was my second 10k in Bangkok.
My last 10k didn’t go too well because my knees started seizing up around the 5km mark. Which was strange, because I regularly run more than that on Sundays without issues. So for this race, I re-evaluated my tactic. Instead of matching pace with everyone else and running slow, but consistent, I decided to run faster at my natural pace but slow myself to a walk for 50 metres every 500 metres.
Luckily, this tactic paid off and I finished the race with much better numbers than last time.
Amazing Thailand vs SWU Run Together 2024 statistics
Amazing Thailand vs SWU Run Together ‘24 splits
Amazing Thailand vs SWU Run Together 2024 HR Zones
Overall, this run wasn’t as well organised as the last one (They couldn’t completely block traffic and we had to dodge between cars), but was more fun, because it included climbing up (and down) some flyovers and bridges over khlongs.
As you can see above, I finished the 10k almost 20 minutes before the last one. My heart rate also stayed consistently at the higher zones.
My only regret? Missing a sub 1 hour 10k by 48 seconds (As per the official race results; my watch started tracking early).
Maybe next time?
SWU Run Together 2024 participation medalSWU Run Together 2024 participation medal
I think at this point in my life, I can safely call myself well travelled. Although I have never been to the quintessential western cities (Like New York, London or Paris), I have been to some pretty off-beat places.
I have a job where it is quite easy to shift my base to different places. I had a few offers to move again recently, and I was conflicted about it. So recently I started making a list of ratings for various cities I have been to, based on different parameters. These parameters are only based on things that are important to me.
Below are the cities, I have been to, rated on various parameters between 1 to 10.
Some things to remember
I am only including major or metropolitan cities
These ratings are purely based on my preferences and observations. Does not take into account other metrics I don’ deem important to me
I do not take into account finances like income or cost of living. I assume proportional income everywhere
This is probably the first thing one notices about a city, when you enter the airport and then when you leave it.
No doubt, Melbourne is the best city in this regard I have been to. Everything is clean and perfect. The roads, buildings etc. are all as should be in a utopian society.
Although I didn’t spend too much time in Helsinki, I found its infrastructure to be top-notch, too. The heated pavements were something I had never seen or imagined.
Budapest/Vienna/Prague all rank pretty high in this regard, too and São Paulo feels just like a quintessential European city.
San Francisco is beautiful, too, but I couldn’t un-see the mounds of human feces on every street corner and the sheer amount of homeless people.
Indian cities rank lowest. Although Delhi has a pretty good metro system, that is it. Everything is filthy and unkempt. Kolkata is even worse. Bengaluru, which has a huge potential has horrible roads and no water.
Food
Food is subjective, so the ratings are purely based on my own personal preferences.
Truly, I have never had food as good as Istanbul, ever.
Bangkok comes second, because of the sheer variety of the food available here. You have cheap (but hygienic) street food vendors as well as many Michelin starred restaurants within a block of each other.
Delhi and Kolkata come next, followed by São Paulo & Bengaluru.
Weather is subjective and since I prefer warmer weather, I have rated Bangkok the highest.
Delhi and Kolkata are lowest because of the filthy air quality year round. Delhi is even lower than Kolkata because of the extreme heat during summers and unbearable (because there’s no heating anywhere) winters.
Walkability
I love walking (and street running), so walkability is important to me in a city. Perhaps it is not too surprising that these ratings mirror the ones for infrastructure as both these things are closely related.
Most cities in my list are extremely walkable, except the Indian cities, where walking on the streets is like gambling with your life. Maybe a few important ares in the cities have proper pavements, but certainly not throughout the city. To top it off, most motorcycle drivers feel free to ride on the pavements and cars try to run you down even at zebra crossings.
Historical Artifacts
Istanbul again wins hands down in this regard, being one of the oldest cities in the list and having been shaped by multiple empires.
European cities rank next, I love the thousands of years old architecture.
European colonised cities rank lowest, simply because they are not old enough to have significant historical artefacts, especially with the propensity of these colonisers to erase ethnic history.
These ratings are purely about how the locals treat foreigners and expats.
Bangkok rates pretty high, because Thais, with some exceptions are very friendly and welcoming people. Although, if your appearance is very different from what they’re used to seeing, expect stares. Brazilians in São Paulo are also very friendly and welcoming. Because of their multi-cultural make up, there’s no one in the world who looks “weird” enough not to fit in there.
I found most Europeans if not outright racist, at least pretty cold towards outsiders.
Australians are the worst. Although I did meet a few friendly Australians, most of them are racist pricks.
Dog Friendliness
I admit, some of the cities in the list above I visited before I had a dog and didn’t really notice how dog friendly they were, so the rating for those cities is from internet research.
Most cities in developed countries and São Paulo are as dog friendly as can be. Dogs are allowed almost everywhere – in malls, restaurants, cafés, bars, public transport, hotels. There are very little restrictions on what the dogs can do and where they can go, because their parents have enough common sense. These cities also have public dog parks.
India is not at all dog friendly. While pets are tolerated in Bengaluru and Kolkata, there are very few places where pets can go, limited to designated pet-specific businesses. Taxis won’t agree to take you if you have a pet. The public transport is not even human friendly, so I won’t even talk about dogs.
Delhi is the worst of all. People there actually hate dogs. There are severe restrictions on having dogs even in your own homes. Dogs need to take a separate lift when going out and they can’t be walked within the society grounds.
Bangkok is somewhere in the middle. Most people love dogs. Dogs are allowed in taxis and Tuktuks , but not in metros and buses. Most restaurants/cafes and malls allow dogs in the outdoor areas on leash and indoors in a pet buggy. Some malls and restaurants allow pets freely.
I moved to Bangkok 3 years ago. After living here all this time, it is time to do a report card of things I like and things I don’t like.
Things I like (love) about living in Bangkok
The weather is awesome.
In summers it never crosses above 35C and in winters it never goes below 25C. I simply love the weather.
I love the sudden & heavy nature of the rains especially that it almost never happens during commute times.
There’s ample sunshine all year round, something I really need and appreciate. UV is quite high but can be managed with sunscreen.
There are many beautiful places to visit and stay at, within a few hours drive. Hotels and AirBnBs are cheaper than in India. The nearest beach is 70 minutes drive from my place.
Bangkok (And even Thailand) is multi-cultural. People from all over the world live here, with Europeans and Japanese being most common.
Salaries are higher than India for the same level of work.
Tax rates are lower than India. It makes me feel sick to think how much I paid as taxes in India and how little we all got back.
Gadgets are cheaper not only in absolute value but also accompanied with higher purchasing power because of higher salaries.
Healthcare is cheaper than India and insurance plans cover yearly tests and OPD visits.
Fuel is cheaper than India. Consequently,
Taxis are cheaper than India and better, too
Airfare for travelling within Thailand is much cheaper than airfare for travelling within India.
Electricity is cheaper than India.
The rivers are well maintained and have great river-view dining and entertainment options. I also love the Khlongs that branch off the rivers into the cities. I love travelling the city by boats.
Much better air quality than North India.
People are very considerate & conscious of passing infectious diseases to others and self-isolate even for minor things like colds and wear masks.
Food and beverages are abundant, varied and cheap.
Thai food in Thailand is better and cheaper than Indian food in India. No one (except Indian expats) brings food from home to office. Everyone eats outside.
International food in Thailand is about the same price as in India, but the quality of food and restaurants is much better. Even the high-end restaurants here are not more expensive than mid-range restaurants in India.
Indian food is more expensive than in India, but that is to be expected.
As of 2024, there are 35 Michelin starred restaurants in Bangkok alone. Many of them in the vicinity of where we stay.
Rents are about the same as Delhi for comparable locations, but places are much better. But income is higher, so we can afford to stay at a much better location compared to what we did in India.
Better infrastructure, any day.
Thais are religiously tolerant. Keep their religious views private and don’t force it on others.
Relatively safe at night. Relatively safe for women.
More pet friendly, although not the same level as the west.
Most restaurants allow you to bring pets. Most of them also serve the dog water and are kind to them.
Most malls allow you to bring pets if they are in a pram. Some allow them on the floor on a leash even.
Most AirBnBs and many hotel chains are dog friendly.
Pet-friendly transportation exists, although at a slightly higher cost.
Most Thais are very polite and friendly.
Things I dislike about living in Bangkok
Very few microbreweries, because of laws designed to maintain the duopoly of ThaiBev and Singha.
No hill-stations that compare to Indian hill-stations.
Thais are obsessed with ice. Most drinks and even water served at restaurants are 80-90% ice unless you beg them not to.
Metros are more expensive than India. In most cases, cabs are cheaper than metros if 2 or more people are travelling, but traffic is horrible, so people prefer paying extra for the convenience.
International schooling is much more expensive than India. It is because International schools here hire only native English speaking teachers and they don’t come cheap. Even at higher rates, school infrastructure are not as expansive.
Thais, especially Thai women are extremely vain. They care too much about how they look. Although, this doesn’t affect me directly.
It is common for them to body-shame each other for putting on a single kg of weight. Plus sized shops are named Fatty-Fatgirl plus size, Fat girls and Chubbers. Consequently, cloth sizes are different, too. I wear M sized shirts and pants in India. In Thailand, same shirts are L or XL and pants are XXL.
Cosmetic procedures are incredibly common here. Many malls have entire floors with “clinics” dedicated to such procedures. Most women above 30 take monthly Botox injections.
Obsessed with fairness, much like India.
Obsessed with social media. Are always on their phones even when out for meals with others and even dates. I saw the same thing in China.
Have a strange relationship with ambient temperature.
Like to keep indoor temperature very chilly. But then wear jackets and coats. What a waste of energy unnecessarily cooling a place.
Cannot handle temperatures above 30C.
Cannot handle temperatures below 20C.
Treat pets very strangely, is irritating.
Don’t sterilise their pet.
Many Thais keep part-time pets. Basically this means that the pet stays on the streets, but comes home to feed. Such people won’t let the “pets” be taken away and sheltered, neither will take responsibility when the “pet” harms someone.
Don’t let their dogs meet other dogs on the street even though the dog is begging for it.
They also try to project their desire to have a baby on the dog. Come on just let them be dogs
Keep wiping the saliva from their dog’s mouths.
Scold their dog if it sniffs another dog’s butt.
Don’t do anything when their unsterilised horny dog mounts another one at the dog park.
Too non-confrontational. Will take abuse and insults without any retaliation.
Overall, the positives outweigh the negatives not only in quantity but also in intensity. Looking forward to many more years staying here.
A few weeks ago, I had an epic sleep deprivation experience that I felt worth logging. Owing to a combination of some personal issues and the iPad conundrum, I just couldn’t fall asleep. I have been sleep deprived many times, but this is perhaps the first time I didn’t sleep a minute all night.
Here’s an hour-by-hour log of what happened
The Experience
Time Range
Log
22:00-00:00
Tossing and turning without being able to fall asleep.
00:00-01:00
Walked around, did some laundry folding.
01:00-03:00
Tossing and turning without being able to fall asleep.
Gave up trying to sleep, got up and had the first coffee of the day.
05:30-06:30
Had the most amazing run ever. It felt as if the kms were flying by in a blur and my pace throughout was the best it has ever been in recent years.
06:30-07:00
Cool down and shower
07:00-08:00
Second coffee of the day
08:00-09:30
No recollection of what I did. Completely wiped from memory
09:30-10:30
Went grocery shopping with the wife, had my third coffee of the day.
10:30-11:00
Came back home and had lunch. Around this time, I started feeling the shakes in my hands. From too much caffeine, rather than from sleep deprivation, I reckon. Also started feeling bouts of irritability.
11:00-14:30
Watched Munich. Again, I only remember this part in bits and pieces. Not sure why it took so long to finish the movie or what I did in between.
14:30-15:30
No recollection of what I did. Completely wiped from memory
15:30-16:30
Sudden feeling of euphoria. Became very happy and wanted to enjoy life. Started writing this post.
16:30-19:00
Went out with my family to an open mall for dinner. Had a beer, but didn’t feel anything. Was unusually happy throughout. My memory from this trip has lapses.
19:00-20:00
No recollection of what I did. Completely wiped from memory
20:00-09:00
Slept for 13 hours, took 2 coffees to get rid of the grogginess. Still felt sleepy all day.
Sleep Deprivation Log
Overall, the experience was quite similar to one of my marijuana benders, which is to say, not pleasant. Next time I can’t sleep, I will bite the bullet and swallow a pill.
I couldn’t end 2023 without another iPad debacle. I already went through how I bought an iPad Pro 12.9 and iPad Pro 11 back in 2022. After the 2022 debacle, I ended up without an iPad, but reasonably satisfied. Then 2023 came around and things went wrong.
As part of my New Years’ resolution, I started reading again. The only problem was, English books are very expensive in Thailand. On top of that, English Indian books are very hard to find. To solve this problem, I bought a Kindle. All was good for a few months, till I felt like I wanted to read comic books & magazines. Of course you cannot do that on a kindle. So what does one do?
One day while walking through the mall, I saw a good deal on an iPad Air (5th Gen) & bought it. Things were OK for a while, I read both books and magazines on it, no problem. However, the poorly storage space (64Gb) and the 60Hz screen started nagging me. Especially when I switched from using my iPhone to the iPad, it felt really bad. I decided that it won’t do. My daughter’s 4 year old iPad was acting up, so I gave her my Air and started looking around.
iPad Pro 11 (4th Gen) 512Gb
The iPad Pro 11 was seemingly perfect. It addressed the storage and display refresh rate limitations of the Air. Weeks went by, with me oblivious to what’s coming next. And then I made a mistake of checking out iPads at the mall. Once I compared the iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 displays, it was game over for this iPad, too.
I hadn’t done my homework before buying this iPad. If I had, I would know that the iPad Pro 11 had a regular LCD screen which goes up to 600 nits. The iPad Pro 12.9 on the other hand, has a Mini LED display and the difference is mind blowing. The contrast and brightness were incomparable. And once I saw this, I couldn’t go back to the iPad Pro 11. It was outside the return window, so I sold it on Facebook Marketplace at a slight loss. I was lucky I got such a good deal.
iPad Pro 12.9 (6th Gen) 512Gb
The next logical step was to buy the iPad Pro 12.9. I chose to forget what happened last time and bought one from the Apple Store. The good news was, I couldn’t find anything wrong with it. I even went a long way towards getting used to its huge size and weight. Then I saw a deal on Studio 7 and I returned the iPad to Apple (The process took less than 10 mins).
iPad Pro 12.9 (5th Gen) 512Gb
The deal I saw was for an iPad Pro 12.9 (5th Gen) for less than what I paid for the last one. The kicker is, this was a 2Tb model. I couldn’t ever use the 2Tb, but the 1Tb/2Tb models do come with 16Gb RAM, too and appealed to me no end. I ended up saving money with the last transition, but didn’t lose much because the 5th Gen to 6th Gen upgrade was minor at best. I had second thoughts after buying this one, too and even contacted customer care to return it, but eventually slapped myself hard twice and stopped it. But after the holidays came and went and it didn’t even ship, I cancelled the order.
iPad Pro 12.9 (6th Gen) 512Gb
Eventually, I gave up and went back to the Apple Store and bought the same iPad I bought before the last one, but this time in Silver colour.
Analysis
After the dust settled, I tried to think about why this happens to me and why specifically only with iPads. Why did I go through 7 iPads in a span of 10 months? My iPhone is more than a year old and I felt no yearning to upgrade when the iPhone 15 Pro came out. My AirPods Pro lasted 4 years before I had to change them because they died. My Apple Watch is 2 generations old and the last one lasted 4 generations. I have never wanted a Mac or a MacBook. This literally doesn’t happen to me for anything except the iPad.
Eventually, I realised it is because I am looking for a single device to do all of the below
This is Part 3 in continuation to my last post about running. The good news is, I have been able to follow my running schedule religiously over more than a year now. The only time I took a break was for a few days when I had the flu.
I have been able to increase my distance a bit since I started and am running around 18km a week.
My VO2 max has continued its upward trend, but still not reached 2021 levels and probably never will, because of age.
1 year VO2 max trend
I recently ran my first formal 10k in Bangkok, which was an exhilarating experience.
The only problem with participating in marathons in Bangkok is that they start very early (approx 2 AM for full, 4 AM for half and 5 AM for 10k). However, the atmosphere is electric, even early in the morning. There are mascots dancing, drones buzzing overhead and a live band playing.
Finisher’s medalFinisher’s medal
Running among hundreds of people is a completely different experience compared to running alone. The distance goes by very fast and before you know it, the race is over.
May to September is the season when it rains in Bangkok. I love the rains. Reduces my stress levels so much. I love it so much, can’t stop gushing about it.
Bangkok Rains
The best part about rains here are the fact that 99% of the times, it happens at convenient times. It almost never rains
7:00 to 08:00 – When it’s time to go to school and office
12:00 to 13:00 – When it’s time to go for lunch
16:30 to 17:30 – When it’s time to go back home from office
Last year I remember getting stuck at office without transportation only a couple of times. This time, luckily it has happened only once, and I just walked home with an umbrella.
This is also the time to celebrate Onam. Looking around on Facebook, I found a restaurant (Jhol) which was serving Onam Sadya. We ordered some to eat home and it was so delicious, I still cannot believe it.
Onam Sadya
The quality of the food was incredible and the taste was amazing. There were total 32 dishes and even though the quantity was much more than I could normally eat, the taste more than made up for it.
In Bangkok, it stops raining around September. October-February are completely dry months. That is why, it gave us immense joy when we experienced today, the first rain of the season.
First Rain of the Season
Although the rains do pose some inconveniences when it comes to commuting or walking the dog, overall, I have missed them.
Taking my series further, here’s Pathetic Fool 6 from Bangkok.
Of all the places, this one works in my own company. And is an Indian to boot, adding to my shame.
Has lost almost all of his hair but has still tried to salvage the situation by doing this very pathetic comb over. Why people just don’t shave their heads before reaching this stage is beyond me.
Bonus points for that fancy orange loop to hang his mask from his neck.
It is somewhat shocking, the rate at which Cannabis stores have popped up in Bangkok, ever since the legalisation. Seemingly overnight. Suddenly I am surrounded by more Cannabis stores than 7 Elevens.
Below are some that I see on a regular basis that I found creative.
This is the one closest to my home. This started out as a small nook above a donut shop, but they eventually bought the property next door for their own place.
High Society Cannabis StoreHigh Society Cannabis Store
This is my favourite. It has no pretensions about what it is selling. Everything is clearly labelled.
Wonder Land
As per Google, there are 241 cannabis stores in Sukhumvit area alone. Thais are extremely shy about smoking up, so it remains to be seen how long all these stores last on expat business alone.
