Nailbiter

Tennis doesn’t fill stadiums here the way that soccer and Thai boxing do. Just the same, net sports get lots of play—it seems like there’s a game of badminton or takraw in every side street—and some well-regarded pro tennis players have emerged from Thailand in the last decade.

A friend called to offer me a spare ticket to the qualifying rounds of the annual Thailand Open, sounding almost apologetic about the no-names who would be on the program. I didn’t care about seeing Nadal. A day out sounded fun, and it had been a long time since my last chance to see professional sports.

We settled in as Warut Korkiatthaworn took on Alex Bogomolov. It was easy to tell these two apart. One of them won nearly all the points. Isn’t that how things are supposed to turn out on the first day of a pro tournament?

Next up were Dmitry Tursonov, on our left, against Marinko Motosevic, on our right. Or was it the other way around? Who knew? Each of them won his serve. Every time. After an hour of remarkably even play, the first tiebreaker finished 10-8. I was exhausted.

Now I know this wasn’t Roger vs. Rafa at Wimbledon. In the grand scheme of things, these guys were competing for peanuts, in a match that next week will be long forgotten. Yet I wasn’t sure my poor old tired body could handle another set like the first one. It wasn’t just that an hour’s labor had come down to a single point. Nor that tennis etiquette discourages yelling among the spectators, even when yelling is clearly called for.

No, the true cause of my tension was the full-blast air conditioning. This match was taking place in a refrigerated arena, which at that moment housed only a sprinkling of people. If by some chance one of the players hit a ball out of the court and into the stands, most likely it would have landed in an empty seat.

Where were all the tennis fans? Outside, shopping for gear at the crowded exhibition hall. Snapping photos next to the life-size cutouts of Paradorn and his glamorous wife. Lunching on countless varieties of fast food.

Hardly anyone besides my friend and me knew about the battle of nerves going on inside the deep freeze.

The second set followed the same pattern as the first. By this time we had finally identified Tursonov as the one most anxious to move things along. Unlike Motosevic, he never argued a line call or dawdled during the breaks between games. Perhaps his confidence came from experience: we learned later that at the 2006 Thailand Open, he had won the whole tournament.

Whatever the reason, he prevailed in this match… barely. This time the tiebreaker ended 7-3. Out of 194 points played, Tursonov won only 12 more than Motosevic did. As they walked off the court after two hours, both players looked relieved that it was over. Yet their emancipation was nothing compared to the joy I felt as I walked out into the thawing mid-afternoon sun. I would gladly watch a rematch some day. As long as it is played at room temperature.

New Digs, cont.

I already knew that I liked our new neighborhood. Lately I’m appreciating more and more the apartment itself. Though built a couple decades before our previous spot, it has gorgeous and well-maintained gardens, a little lake out back, no peeling paint. The cheerful staff even encourages recycling—not many places in Thailand can say that!

New Digs

Jip and I moved to a new section of the city this week. Technically, we’re in a new province, just over the official Bangkok boundary. On our first morning in the new apartment, Jip identified bird sounds outside the window that she hadn’t heard at our old place. She asked if we had moved to the countryside.

I didn’t want to tell her right away that Nonthaburi no longer looks the way it did before she moved to the U.S. nearly twenty years ago, and that in 2010 it might as well be a part of the Big Mango. If Jip wants to picture the area as mostly open space, I’m not going to pop her balloon.

We’re now surrounded by fewer shophouses and sky train stations, but more car repair chains and coffee shops. The neighborhood includes a small university and a golf driving range. Instead of the elephant carvings that are traditionally offered at Thai temples in appreciation of answered prayers, wooden zebras surround some Nonthaburi temples.

There’s no less traffic here than where we were, but the distance to my office is much shorter— the major reason for the move. We’re also now further from the areas most likely to be centers of political protest. I wish we didn’t have to consider that factor, but it was no fun watching Bangkok burn from our balcony last May. It would be unrealistic to believe that Thailand has seen its final demonstration of the year.

After just a few days, no regrets. In fact, I’m walking around wondering why everybody doesn’t live here. We’re saving tons on the cost of an apartment. An inexpensive van leaves for downtown every 15 minutes or so from a nearby parking lot. Just beyond that is a good massage shop. What more does a body need?

Best of all for us, Jip’s entire caregiver team came along enthusiastically. I had expected we would lose at least one of them in the move. When I first brought up the subject, I was pleased to learn that one has a sister living close by, and another would be shortening her commute considerably. That left the one who is completing her bachelor’s degree at a campus far across town. Even she didn’t mind our new location—it’s just down the road from the mall where her boyfriend recently got a job.