Death by Chilis

 A story of my first day in Bangkok

 (written on Saturday, June 18, 2022)

In the earliest hours of this morning, I moved to Bangkok, Thailand.

The process of moving took three full days of traveling, including an overnight stop in Seattle to see one of my best friends <3 

 

Mt. Rainier poked its head out!

Elyse and I tourist-ing it up on the Great Wheel

 

 Flights: DC - Chicago - Seattle - Tokyo - Bangkok

 

The journey begins

 

 

Japan airlines was like -
this girl is way too big for a normal seat...

They even had Japanese toilets on the airplane!!

 

I was in my apartment at 1 am, and asleep by 3. It was a fitful night, jetlag and nerves keeping me from fully sleeping, but I got enough rest to function today. It’s Saturday, so I only had two goals:

    1) Eat

    2) Start to adjust

      I failed at both.

     I came with two big suitcases, but in fact my move is still ongoing because the bulk of my stuff has not yet been shipped either from Virginia or from Tbilisi, so I will be living out of my suitcases and the Embassy ‘welcome kit’ for the next several weeks or months. It's a strange balancing act, trying to decide what I should keep provided by the hotel (serviced apartment), what I should use from the welcome kit (which I have to keep track of for the next two years), what I should buy, and what I should wait for my version of to be delivered from home(s).  

     Over the last five years living in Tbilisi, I got married, bought an apartment, started my career, adopted a dog, and overall built a life. 

     When I moved away from home for the first time at 18 to go to university, I remember thinking wow, I can't believe all the stuff I really need fits in this tiny space! And I loved the feeling of being light and unshackled to possessions. I would certainly never call myself a minimalist, but from about 2012 - 2019, I was moving at least once a year, traveling constantly, generally in a state of flux and uncertainty, and pretty broke. Once I settled in Georgia in our own apartment, and started to earn some disposable income, unsurprisingly, I began to buy more stuff. 

     Of course, all that stuff isn't necessary, it's all replaceable and breakable and forgettable, but it's also the stuff that was the backdrop to the best period of my life (so far). I'm not a frivolous spender - by most measures I'm a stingy tightwad, in fact, and have some issues with decision making, which means that almost all my stuff has memories attached to it - if not of using it, of contemplating buying it, researching it, shopping for it multiple times until I found the right thing. I'm sure a good psychologist could unpack the mental complexes that make me reluctant to get rid of old things (yes, I did have this shirt in high school, thanks for noticing), but for better or for worse, it feels weird and bad not having my stuff.  

     That feeling of emptiness is amplified by the fact that I am actually alone. Bacho (husband #1) isn't joining me in Bangkok until September because he has to work, single-handedly holding up the Georgian bureaucracy (only a slight exaggeration). I know no one in this country apart from work colleagues who I've never met in person. I did a shamefully small amount of research because I was very busy and perhaps in a tiny bit of denial. It would be nice to have some of my dumb stuff to cushion the blow.

     One way I have decided to cope with my weird-bad feelings is to restart this blog. So, you're welcome, mom and Indian spam bots.  

     Anyway, I thought I'd share the supremely uninteresting story of my first day, how I failed to both eat and adjust, and some first impressions. 

     My office put several staple foods in my fridge and pantry for me - coffee and milk, yogurt, bread, peanut butter, pasta, pasta sauce, mini croissants. I grazed for a bit when I woke up, and about mid-day I decided to venture out into the street to check out the neighborhood. 

     My first impression was the humidity. It was hot, for sure, about 34C/93F. It wasn't too bad until I started walking. After about five minutes, sweat was dripping down my neck, my back, and lower half of my face (masks are still mandated in public in Thailand). I quickly understood why no one else was walking around. There were plenty of people out, whizzing by on motorbikes or in taxis, but few on foot, probably because of the midday heat plus the lack of sidewalks on the sois (alleyways/ small roads).

     One of the best aspects of my neighborhood in Tbilisi (Vake) is its walkability, shaded by large trees and with wide sidewalks on either side of the main streets. Yes, the sidewalks were cracked and mismatched but they were always bustling with people strolling with friends, shopping, commuting by foot, walking dogs, or chilling at the birzha, and there was a robust cafe culture. I haven't quite figured ut my neighborhood in Bangkok yet. Everyone says it's one of the coolest, full of bars, cafes, and even a few Michelin-star restaurants, and popular among expats. I did spot several foreigners - a Malaysian biking club in colorful spandex, a finance bro in salmon pink chubbies drinking a Starbucks frappuccino, and an unsettling number of old-out of shape-white-man + young-beautiful-local-woman pairings. 

     I walked in a big square from my apartment and back, stopping at a cafe I had researched for lunch. It was fine. I got nervous and ordered some lame sandwich, so that's on me, but the coffee was delicious. 

     I walked along one big road and several little sois. The big road had a sidewalk but wasn't pleasant with the noise, heat, and exhaust from the vehicles. The sois I was on were narrow and curvy with motorbikes whipping around blind corners, so I plastered myself to the walls of the houses and small (mostly closed or, at least, empty) businesses along the road. The neighborhood seems both more and less urban than Vake, Tbilisi. I'm in a high rise (29 floors) on a street of similar hotels/serviced apartments, but there are also tons of one or two story private houses or businesses surrounded by high walls with large green gardens that stand out when I look down from my balcony. There's also what looks like a Catholic church but I think is a housing development? 

     This is the only picture I took on my walk, oops. I promise I'll get some more to post!

       

Shiny beautiful scooters! I really want to get one

I ate my lame sandwich in the cafe, petting a Pomeranian who was roaming around freely and had apparently just had some kind of medical procedure because he had been shaved in very strange pattern, and he seemed mad about it...but he liked being pet.

         

     Walking on the streets I was out of place - because few people walk, at least at mid day, and because I am pale and big and foreign. I swear I am like twice the size of most people here. I don't even get the old urge to lean and slouch to bring my height more in line with others, there's not even a chance. I just have to embrace it, like we are simply females of different species with different standards of physical presentation. Otherwise, I'll feel like a freak all the time. Motorbikes honked as they passed me, probably trying to pick up a fare (there are lots of motorbike taxis) or maybe jeering at me, who knows.

     The rest of the afternoon I lounged at "home" in a strange, hazy melancholy, taking inventory of my new apartment, halfheartedly unpacking, trying to find some Thai music I like to pump me up, staring at other buildings' pools from my balcony (we also have a pool, I wasn't jealous, they are just pretty to look at). 

     About 6:30, it started to get dark, because we are so close to the equator. It's a bit strange, but a welcome respite from the intense sun. It was around that time that I suddenly realized I was starving. I had no energy to go outside again so I decided to order something from the popular and much-recommended app Grab. Grab is insane. It does everything. You can order a taxi, a driver by the hour, or even a driver for your own car like if you're going out drinking and want a DD. You can book hotels and "experiences," and hire a personal assistant or a cleaning service. You can order groceries, errands run, personal deliveries, and, of course, food. 

     Grab's features are all available in clear English, but the restaurants on the app seem to primarily list their items in Thai - crazy. Since I can't even read the alphabet, I was lost when there weren't pictures of the items. I managed to find a Chinese place with beautiful pics of the food and google-translated names of the dishes. The menu included gems like: "The old altar pickled rice noodles," "Saliva chicken," and "Wavy potato salad." I ordered everything that looked good, hoping for leftovers - spicy wonton soup, custom noodles with veg, smashed cucumbers, cubed watermelon and sweet Thai tea. They definitely thought the order was for four people, judging by the amount of cutlery included. When choosing each item, you had to select the level of spiciness. The options were:

        1. A little bit spicy
  2. Less spicy
  3. Normal spicy
  4. More spicy
  5. Born for spicy

     I like spicy food! But wasn't sure if I could handle Thai (or Chinese-Thai) levels, so to test it out, I got the wonton soup "normal," the noodles "less" and the cukes "little bit" (note there was no option for not spicy). I also selected "need some peanut" (as opposed to the other option, "do need peanut") on all the items, obviously.

     When the food came, it looked incredible, but I immediately knew I was in trouble by the color of the spicy wonton soup. Pics of the little devils:

      

 

I took a slow, careful spoonful of the broth and slurped. Pure fire. The back of my throat spasmed as I sucked in a chili flake and I spit the soup all over the countertop and floor, gasping for air. It was by far the spiciest thing I have tasted in my life. But I was so hungry. After ten minutes (I drank half the bottle of Thai tea, it helped) I tried the noodles. I made it about four bites in when the pain in my mouth outstripped the hunger pains in my stomach. 15 minutes. Thai tea. Bread. The memory of the pain began to fade, plus my tongue was sort of numb at that point. I rinsed off a wonton in the sink and ate it. I ate another. Choked some more. Gave up. 

The spicy devils were delicious (I think? Hard to tell, my taste buds are stripped...), but I could already feel the havoc they were going to wreak on my digestive tract, so I have exiled them to the back of the fridge. If anyone has tips for how to make them edible, let me know!

I was able to eat most of the smashed cucumbers. They were delicious, even though I had to take a five minute interval every few bites to prevent my tongue from going totally numb and stave off coughing spasms.

My fabulous supervisor left a bottle of welcome red wine in my apartment (twist top – genius). I wasn’t sure if I was in the mood to drink it after the chili assault, plus the only cups I had were the bathroom spit cups. But I opened up the welcome kit and right at the top there was a package of wine glasses, so I took that as a sign. Not sure if the wine was any good, to be honest, since my tongue has been destroyed, but I think I got hints of grape with a bouquet of alcohol.

A perfect end to my first day in Bangkok.

How to Demo an Apartment in Tbilisi (during Coronavirus)

In my last post, I shared how we decided to buy our new apartment - now I want to talk about how we tore it apart!

This is what is looked like when we bought it: https://dkhome.ge/show/7003

Immediately, there were some things we knew we wanted to change...

1. Open Kitchen!

The first thing we did was rip down the wall separating the kitchen and living room - an open, flowy floor plan was a must for us. Many Georgians, especially the older generation, lived a very different lifestyle and for them an open kitchen is a nightmare. They warn us - what happens if friends drop by for a visit and your kitchen is messy or your husband's friends come over and you want a private space to feed the baby or chat with your girlfriends? What about the smells????

Our response is that we just live differently. Neither my husband nor I invite people over without discussing it first. Big groups of men don't randomly show up at the door at all hours expecting me to feed and wait on them as was so common in the Soviet times. Our friends don't care if there is a pot in the sink or the coffee maker is bubbling away in the corner - we're not putting on a show for them. We like cooking, but due to our busy schedules we don't do it much, which means that entertaining in a big, open space where guests can help arrange a cheese plate or garnish the cocktails is much more important than a hide-away kitchen where I can secretly toil over a big pot of ghomi and kharcho...plus, we have a great vent hood to help keep any stove top smells from wafting around too much.

This type of wall construction is called "bagdatka" and it a bitch to tear down, apparently

Looks like there was a small fire in here at some point - uh oh

One little wall turned into so much scraps

 

2. Laundry Room

In the US, it's rare not to have a dedicated space for laundry (which usually includes both a washing machine and a dryer). Even in small apartments there is usually a little closet if there is laundry in-unit. In much of Europe, dryers are rare and it's common to just stick a washing machine in the kitchen or bathroom. While I could handle a washing machine in the bathroom if it's big enough, my husband is totally against it and loves the idea of a dryer. So, we decided to build a laundry closet. Although there is space in the apartment to add an additional half-bath, we decided that level of renovation was a bit more involved than we wanted to go, and we love the huge living room space. So, we built a small washer/dryer closet in a corner of the living room that shares a wall with the bathroom to easily bring the plumbing in.
This is our vision:

 

 This is the corner before the laundry closet:

This is the gypso-carton (no clue what it is in English, some kind of cardboard-y panels) frame we built:

 In progress - we're painting the inside "Flamenco" pink!

3. Entry hallway

To spice things up and bring a bit of charm into the space, we decided to put in marble in the entry hallway. Funny thing is, we were shopping for something else and randomly saw some beautiful grey marble slabs on clearance sale - just 50 GEL per m2! So we got excited and bought 9 m2 - just enough for the entryway floor and a baseboard trim. When we bought it, it was a light grey color - exactly what we wanted. Knowing very little about natural stone, we assumed it was being sold in a form that it could actually be used. In fact, our contractor informed us that it's basically raw and should have been polished/finished on site before installation. After we had already bought the marble and paid to have the very heavy stone carried up all our stairs, it was pretty much too late to process it in a factory. Our installer, though, despite admitting to never having installed such stone before and knowing next to nothing about marble, confidently assured us that he could polish them. No one had any idea about the different types of finishes that are common for marble (at least according to the English language Internet)...

Here's what it looked like when we bought it:

Nice, right? Grey, white, a hint of blue

 Here's how it looked once we had it installed:

Here is it washed off...hopefully it's darker than it will really look because it's still wet: 

We didn't realize that it was coated in such a thick layer of factory dust that it was altering the color of the stone. Once we cleaned it off, it completely changed into something that is neither what I wanted nor something I like. In fact, if  it doesn't lighten up once our installer finishes whatever he plans to do, my plan is to just throw a rug over it and hide my tears...

4. Bathroom overhaul

The bathroom was nasty. An old whirpool tub had its jets clogged with black gunk and didn't even have a shower head attachment - not sure how the previous owners lived like that for so long. That was the first thing we ripped out. The only thing staying in that bathroom is the toilet. We're having a double vanity custom made with a black granite counter top - room for it now with the washing machine gone. The new shower/bath combo will be functional and spacious - if not the most trendy look. Floors and walls will be a cool ceramic-granite (that's what it's called in Georgian, still not sure of the exact English translation...) tile in an attempt to give it a spa feeling.

There was also a water pressure issue, so we had to install a pump, which will be ugly and loud but it's better than limpid showers.

This monstrosity (and that tile, wow) was first to go

Bathroom inspo - this is the tile we bought in the showroom

Taking it all down!

New tub going in!

 

Our creative workers set up a sink to keep germs away despite the condition of the bathroom!

5. Kitchen overhaul

Along with opening up the kitchen, we removed (and sold!) the existing kitchen unit, and are having custom cabinets made. We are also putting an island in to make the kitchen and living room feel more connected and have casual seating and more storage. Unfortunately we weren't able to put a sink in the island like we wanted due to some confusing problem with the building's central water line, but it will be great storage and have a built in pull-out trash can and a microwave. In terms of design, we're doing black lower cabinets, white uppers, white herringbone subway tile backsplash, and gold hardware. We'll probably do a black composite granite sink (couldn't talk the husband into an apron front farmhouse style sink...porcelain feels too 'grandma in the village' for him).

Tiler had never heard of herringbone - we had to teach him...but it turned out great!

6. Paint

We removed the wallpaper in the entire apartment and painted it all a light grey, except the laundry room (pink as shown above - don't worry, you'll only be able to see it when you're actually doing laundry!), the master bedroom is a dark blue-grey, the library/guest room is forest green, and we will have a peacock blue feature wall in the kitchen, which I fear is a crazy mistake, but we'll see! 

Our painter is an acrobat

 There are a few other small things we also did: new engineered wood floors throughout the apartment to replace the current laminate, new insulation on one of the external walls which had some water damage, repainting the front door, replacing some of the windows, etc.

We bought the apartment on February 15, 2020.
It was vacated by the previous owner on March 15, 2020 (that's standard in Georgia - contrary to popular belief, it's not the law, just a custom and I would NOT agree to this again...it was an excruciating month of giving the previous owner free rent, feeling bad about bothering her all the time to go measure and check things, and being very antsy about not being able to start demo).
We took a hammer to the first wall on March 16, 2020.

The bulk of the demo was completed in about a week. We hired a couple of guys from the village where my husband's family has a summer house who got it done quickly and cheaply. 

Next post I'll break down our budget for anyone who's interested! 

We got off to a strong start - a rotating team of workers has been there constantly since March 16. Limitations on the number of people that can gather (3) slowed the pace a bit, and it has been a major struggle to find certain materials that turned out we needed. Also, a few big items we weren't able to get before non-essential businesses were shut at the end of March (baseboards, flooring, and light fixtures, mainly).
Now, we have finally been brought to a complete halt by the April 15 city lockdowns - most of our workers are from Rustavi, so couldn't travel to/from the site anymore. At least for 10 days, the work is on hold. It's not too bad, because it won't effect the overall timeline. We can't move in without the bathroom vanity, kitchen, and washing machine, and while stores are closed we won't be able to get those (our cabinet maker's wood supplier isn't working either). 

So, we're just trying to enjoy the Easter holiday and not stress about it too much!

Renovating an Apartment in Tbilisi (During Coronavirus)

During the great global quarantine of 2020, people are finding lots of new ways to spend their time. One friend of mine has committed to learning a new skill everyday and signed up for MasterClass. Another friend dug out books on economics, language, history, and is taking herself back to school. Some people have started podcasts, a new fitness routine, are writing books. And me - I am returning to the blog.

One Tbilisi dude's effort to protect himself from COVID-19 while on the metro

It's been a long time. More than two years since I petulantly logged out of Blogger - feeling depressed, anxious, frustrated, angry, self-conscious, embarrassed. I gave up something that had given me so much pleasure for so long because I gave into social pressure that I was being to critical of Georgia, and because I worried that my hobby was immature or unprofessional.

In the time since I last posted (still can't believe it's been two years!) I moved in with my boyfriend, got married to that boyfriend, got a legit real office job, left that job for a dream professional opportunity, got married, and bought an apartment! So, a lot has changed. But I still love to write!

In the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic I have felt the pull again to talk to myself online, so I have decided to revive the blog! This used to be a travel blog, but I moved abroad and basically stopped traveling (#biggirljob)...but in fact, I do actually have something kind of interesting to write about - our apartment renovation!


AND if anyone actually missed my travel blog, even just a tiny bit - no fear! I have a million and a half draft posts that I plan to slowly go through and finish, so stay tuned!

Now, on to the reno...

BUYING THE APARTMENT
My husband (7 months later and it still feels weird to say that...) and I have been talking about buying an apartment for a long time.

We looked at all sorts of properties, but our main criteria were: central location, easy to renovate to our taste (nothing even remotely close to our price range is our taste), at least 100 m2 (1076 ft2), lots of natural light.

My heart was really set on a historic property - something from the 19th century, with a tiled fireplace, parquet wood floors, crown molding, a glassy, light-filled shushabandi, expansive views of Tbilisi's mountains, a stairwell with wrought iron railings and frescoes painted on the walls - you know, nothing crazy. 

I was hoping for something like this...

 

But alas, that dream was not meant to be. There are a good number of 19th century properties in Tbilisi, but either they are in horrific condition - holes in the floors/ceilings, rot, mold - and usually terribly done, very damaging renovation attempts from the 90s and early 2000s that rob the place of whatever character survived. Some of the places we looked at were literally unlivable. There are also, probably some historic apartments that have been saved and lovingly restored, but in my search it appeared that either they are way out of our budget (like, way out) or have been turned into AirBnB properties.

One property we looked at really captured my heart - in a historic 19th c. building on Tsinamdzghvirishvili St. It was in terrible shape after being chopped up and partitioned into multiple properties, several cheap and tasteless renovations, and years of neglect. 
The building has incredible doors:

Beautiful details like these indoor shutters

This lovely, architectural spiral staircase weirdly bisected the apartment in an indoor-outdoor kitchen/balcony/pot-smoking area for the current residents

I found this a charming view - my husband, not so excited by the bars on the window

This fetid, putrid, rotting hole was located in an archway under the building, just below the bathroom of the apartment - the owner assured us the problem had been resolved, nothing to worry about

This is a different building but the dramatically slanted staircase caught my eye

So, in the end, we turned away from the historic buildings. We compromised on an apartment that, on the surface, really has no special features, but it also has no gaping holes, no major problems. It's in a sturdy, stocky Stalinist building, probably from the early 1950s - not a particularly inspiring facade, but well built and much better than the Khrushchev-era monstrosities with their mismatched DIY balconies that dominate so much of the city (and which we have lived in for the past two and half years).

We we walked into the new apartment for the first time, we were shocked. The price didn't seem to line up with the clean, modern furniture and design, the location, and the size. There was nothing wrong with it. Apart from the cosmetic overhaul we knew we would have to do on any property we purchased, it was perfect. The owner was desperate to sell, overwhelmed by debt, and we closed the deal quickly - furniture included (a relative rarity in Georgia).

Here's what it looked like when we first saw it: https://dkhome.ge/show/7003 

There are a few significant negatives to the place, I'll admit: only one bathroom, no fireplace, one side faces one of the neighborhood's busiest streets, it doesn't have a big balcony for coffee drinking and sun bathing (just a narrow, honestly pretty scary strip along the street-side of the apartment), and, the big one - it's on the fifth floor with no elevator. And since the ceilings are very tall with thick slab floors between each floor, each flight of stairs feels like a momentous task. 

But there are so many positives, the negatives are clearly outweighed: it's in one of the city's most sought-after neighborhoods - lots of trees, walkable, central, stylish (for whatever that's worth - maybe resale value?), and it's where my husband grew up so there's lots of sentimental value for him. The backside of the apartment is a wall of north-facing windows for calming, consistent all-day light that looks out onto a quiet, closed courtyard and the mountain that is home to one of Tbilisi's best parks at Turtle Lake. Look a bit to the left and you get a fantastic view of the city's favorite landmarks - the ferris wheel and TV tower at Mtatsminda Park. The floor plan was basically perfect and easy to configure into what we wanted. It has airy 3-meter (9' 10") ceilings. Also - there was a niche in the bathroom that was perfect for a big bathtub! 

So, we went for it, and made it ours! For both my husband and I, it's the first property we've ever owned, and the purchase and renovation is a big, exciting adventure. We're huge fans of those renovation and design TV shows (you know - Flip or Flop, Desert Flippers, Fixer Upper, etc.) and felt like this was an opportunity to see if it's really as exciting as it looks on TV - so far, I think yes! But now I'm getting ahead of myself... in the next post I'll talk about what we decided to do for the renovation and what sort of limitations we faced being in an apartment, in a city, in Georgia. 

Stay tuned!