Category: Expat Life

Day 18 in Self-Isolation: Thoughts On COVID-19

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We’ve now been officially at home for a little over 2 weeks. The only leaving of the apartment we’ve done is to pick up deliveries from the lobby or drop the rubbish to the bin. Even the building’s pool and gym is closed so there’s no movement to other areas – or distractions from your everyday space.

It’s a strange feeling, the world is revolving around Corona Virus – you wake up, read the news. Go to sleep, read the news. All of us are fixated on the number of the cases, the global changes and the local changes the government implements.

Living here in Bangkok, Thailand – but having roots in Belgium and Australia – there is even more to consume. It’s not just keeping up to date with your own surroundings but also the ones where we have family and friends.

Life definitely doesn’t feel normal. It’s hard to say whether this situation improves or decreases my sense of focus and living in the moment. In one way we are forced to live in the moment by staying at home. In another way there is this complete feeling of lack of control and inability to plan. Immediate plans for travel are gone, future plans for travel are unknown. It’s a mess.

The best way I’ve found mentally to categorise it is with benefits and negatives pre and during-COVID-19. The strange thing and the one that I’ve heard those close to me say is it feels like I don’t have any more time than usual. This may come down to I haven’t had to remove social interactions, so quarantining, seeing people less hasn’t been a part of my life change.

Benefits:

  1. No thoughts of travel of going away for the weekend
  2. Minimalism has become a focus again – how much of my material things can I use up and how important are these material things to my life. As a result of COVID-19 my addiction to online shopping has greatly reduced (seeing less people has made me less conscious of buying new things). I’m instead focusing on decluttering, “hitting pan” on as many products as I can and trying you “water only” washing for my hair. 1 week in and so far so good.
  3. More time with my partner. Jens and I now spend 24/7 together – I can’t say whether it’s been a good thing for our relationship yet. Maybe more than before I realise we have been fortunate to spend a lot of time together.
  4. Adjusting back to not relying on Asia conveniences. We stopped our maid and I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to adjust back to doing everything ourselves at home, but actually the change has been nice. (Although I do feel like I go through ups and downs where I feel I’m doing all the housework with very little help)

Negatives

  1. Being with your partner 24/7 also doesn’t allow you to fully appreciate being with them since their is no time spent apart. After 2.5 weeks, I’m now starting to crave being able to pop out for few hours of shopping, get my nails done or a massage or something without being in each others spaces so heavily.
  2. Stockpiling, whilst being aware of limiting outside movement and also that the infrastructure could breakdown at any point (online groceries no longer available). It’s meant more planning and less planning all at the same time. The mental ease has not changed significantly.

Here are some photos of life from the last 18 days in quarantine.

One of the first things we did when the crisis started was stock up on wine. After all could you imagine being day in, day out at home and not able to have a glass of wine at the end of the day?
Long before the panic truly hit Thailand, there were reports in Australia of people going crazy over hoarding toilet paper. I bought a couple of extras – ‘just in case’.
Our last grocery shop to Villa Market. This was the day they announced the malls were closing and we expected that people would be racing to the supermarket, we were right. The store was chaos.
Week 1 of being indoors, I just like this photo because my skin looks surprisingly clear 😉
The crazy at home stock pile
We set a background on our TV screen at this time. I hadn’t seen this photo before and it’s turned into one of my favourites!
More time for cooking at home, replicating some okinawa taco rice at home.
Trends taking over Australia

Sunday’s with peach Bellini’s

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With our champagne stock now empty (*cries tears of sadness*), we’ve had to find other ways to fulfill our vino/champagne requirements.

Enter the Bellini.

If you know much about Thailand, the one downside of living here is that they have a crazy high import tax on pretty much everything. That includes alcohol. That means a bottle of wine, say in the US/Australia/Europe…. that may cost $10, is going to cost you $30 here. A bottle of Champagne that is $45, well that’s likely going to set you back $150 (unless you have some very good suppliers or connections).

Hence after craving some sparkles, we decided to try our hand at making home made bellini’s.

First challenge, white peaches in Bangkok – a rarity, and if you do find them, be willing to pay at least $7-$10 a peach. So, we substituted. We were able to find some frozen peach slices and spoiler: the Bellini’s were a winner!

Our recipe:

(makes approximately 2 very large Bellini’s)

  • 1 whole peach or 7 frozen peach slices
  • squeeze of 1/4 quarter fresh lemon
  • 375ml of Martini Gold Prosecco (or half the bottle)
  • 20ml of sugar syrup
  • Icecubes

Method:

Blend the peaches, lemon and sugar syrup to make a puree.

Put 6-7 large icecubes into the glass with puree.

Slowly pour your prosecco, and stir until combined.

Strain and serve into a Champagne or White Wine Glass.

Enjoy! and drink far too many Bellini’s than necessary.

Side Tip: The idea to make Bellini’s came from the idea that we could perhaps stretch out the wine, and drink less (ie pay less) to drink longer.

These bellini’s are so delicious that unfortunately this does not work and you drink just as fast (whilst maybe not so delicately) as a glass of fine Champagne.

Served stirred not Shaken
Sunday Bellini’s
Enjoying the sun with a large glass of Bellini
Overlooking the Bangkok traffic
Sante! I love you, and making and drinking Bellini’s together with you!

Thoughts on living in Bangkok

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We moved to Bangkok in September 2016, and officially decided to make it our home base in December 2016. The first few months of living here were strange, we had moved into a condo (apartment) in an area called Sathorn.

I had made the switch from “Digital Nomad” living to expat life. I remember my first few months was figuring things out, adapting to the city, a lot of massages, a lot of grocery trips. To be honest, things haven’t changed much.

Fast forward 3 years later and my feelings towards the city have deepened. I now work at executive level in an office, but a love for Thailand never developed.

In fact, a love for Thailand, left. My once warm feelings for the land of smiles, disappeared. Instead a feeling of resentment has built.

It’s hard for me to differentiate whether it has come about from getting older and a changing of priorities, a lack of perspective – or truly a dislike for the Thai city.

The priorities I never realised I had, healthy living, slow life, quiet nature escapes grew much louder.

Everything is much more expensive (at least if you want to live any semblance of western living – food, wine, beauty products and more)

It’s hard to see whether Thailand has just made me fussy.

It wears on you as well, feeling resentful to a country that has not done much wrong.

It might be getting older, it might be being an expat that doesn’t settle well. Maybe it’s the traveler’s curse.

It might be having too high expectations of a place that is never meant to be a replica of the west. I’m not sure what it is, I just know that Thailand does not feel home, and in fact a large resistance grows every day to place that seems culturally opposite, dirty, hierarchical and unaware of its shortcomings.