Bangkok: Sampeng Market (This ain't JoAnn's)

With all the flooding going on in Thailand right now, Bangkok has been on my mind a lot lately. I felt the urge to go back and share some of the happy times I had there this summer. It's resilient city, and I know, with time, it will recover. My heart goes out to the good people in this trying time.

When I was in Bangkok this summer, one of my favorite days was the crafty "girl's day out" my Thai hostess invited me to. We left the husbands and her kids snoring away, and were on the road by 8 a.m. to discover the crafty treasures awaiting us in the labyrinthine corridors of the Sampeng Market.

Located in Chinatown, this market tends to be a bit off the tourist trail. Though, if you have a crafting bone in your body, Sampeng is a must-see. It's jam-packed with fabrics, notions, yarns, and beads, as well as hair decorations, school supplies, toys, clothing, housewares, and "exotic" snacks (oh, how I miss you, salted snow plums).  Even better, it's all relatively inexpensive, though it really helped that I was with a local who could help me haggle.

Our first crafty stop was at one of the biggest bead stores in the market. I was drawn in by the walls lined with bags of colorful sequins, and followed the glittery trail back to find a cavernous room lined with sacks of rhinestones and beads. It took me a bit to explain to the nice employees that I wanted smaller quantities of beads, not smaller sizes of beads themselves, but once I did I walked out with some gorgeous rhinestones and hand-made polymer clay flowers.

 After a bit more shopping for hair accessories and gifts (as well as a new pair of embroidery scissors to replace the ones confiscated in Taipei), we stopped for lunch. We simply stepped out of the flow of traffic to a noodle vendor, and perched ourselves at the wee stall-side table while they cooked up our meal on the spot.

I have to admit, I felt a bit like an adult sitting at a child's table, though by then I was getting used to being the biggest person around. You can see just how little the stools were from the background of this picture. Comfy for Thais, not so much for plus-size Farang women.

After a tasty lunch, we browsed some more. I was in high shopping mode. I picked up a Japanese quilting magazine for my mom, tons of beautifully patterned cotton fabric, numerous spools of thread, and some fine crochet yarn for my friend back home. It was a beautiful, crafty haul.

I haven't begun projects with most of the materials yet, but I'm waiting for the right ideas to strike. These are once-in-a-lifetime treasures for me, so when I finally do make something, I want it to be the right something.

Sights of Thailand: Nutshell Edition

"And this is Selma dropping off our vacation film to be developed.
Thus concludes our Mexican Odyssey."

So, to keep this from turning into an, endless, Patty-and-Selma like slideshow of vacation photos, I've done the seemingly impossible and picked a handful of my favorite sightseeing pictures from the trip. These are what summed up our time in Thailand, and they may not always be what you expect.

Sawasdee Ka Krung Thep (Hello, Bangkok)

Krung Thep means City of Angels, but we are happy to call it Bangkok if it helps to separate a farang from his money. –John Burdett, Bangkok 8

When we arrived in Bangkok, it was after 14+ hours in the air. So, everything had a sort of dreamlike quality for the first day or so as our bodies adjusted their biorhythms from Pacific Standard to Indochina Time.

I’ll always remember when we entered Bangkok proper for the first time. As our taxi swept down from the expressway into midday Bangkok traffic, a strange sense of familiarity flooded me. It wasn’t just the billboards for Western movies and products, or even the landscape of high rises jutting into the milky sky.

It was the near-claustrophobic crush of humanity right at street level: brightly painted taxis, spindly tuk tuks, and hordes of weaving motor-scooters. Vendors would casually navigate between the packed lanes, selling snacks and flower garlands. The BTS Skytrain glided above all the commotion like a sleek, pale eel as we neared Sukhumvit Road (essentially Main Street, Bangkok), marking our destination.

It took me a minute to pinpoint where the nostalgia was coming from. Then it hit me: the urban soup of Bangkok was not too unlike that of the Third World metropolis of my childhood, Mexico DF. Half a globe away from my continent, and suddenly I knew I was going to be alright. I could navigate this, even with a huge language barrier.

Our basecamp was a condo right in downtown, which was being rented for the summer by a good friend of ours and his wonderful family. They graciously put us up for the two weeks of our stay, and were the best guides we could have hoped for as we not only navigated the ins-and-outs of the City of Angels, but the way of living in Southeast Asia.

Next up in the series: The sights of Thailand.

Berkeley to Bangkok

Lordy, no posts since May? What kind of a blogger am I?

The traveling kind, I'm proud to say. I just spent the last two weeks in Southeast Asia (primarily Bangkok, Thailand, with three days in Siem Reap, Cambodia). I've been back in the USA about 24 hours, and I'm already at the keys. I'm jet-lagged and a little culture-shocked, but otherwise feeling good. A mix of sadness that it's all over, pride that we made it, and quiet relief at being home.

Bangkok is a metropolis unlike any I've ever visited before. Just like Thailand's prize dish, Som Tam (green papaya salad), Bangkok is a unique mix of sweet and sour, pungent and spicy. The air is humid this time of year, richly infused with the scents of lemongrass, diesel fuel, incense, and river water. You can find centuries-old temples and posh super-malls within a few Skytrain stops of each other. Cuisine ranges from street-cart noodles to luxurious, five-star dining. People from all around the globe gather here to shop, eat, and play: from middle-age Anglo men hunting for flesh to Burqa-clad women hunting for designer shoes. Not to mention thirty-something American writers hunting for inspiration.

How can I sum up the experience in just one post? I can't. So, over the next few days, I'll be posting a special series about the things we saw, tasted, heard, and did. Don't worry, crafting will be included. Promise.

For now though, it's time to unpack the bags, do some laundry, and catch up on my email. It'll take a few days to get back into the swing of things, but if there's one thing travel abroad has taught me, is to go with the flow.

Nightmares, Comics, and Travel Plans

Aside from waxing nostalgic for ’80s movies and updating my blog layout, there’s been quite a bit stirring in my corner of the world.

A Nightmare on Van Ness Street

Some of the most exciting news I received recently is that my film, Everything I Needed to Know About Zombies I Learned From the Movies, will be participating in A Nightmare to Remember International Horror Film Festival.


The fest takes place Saturday, June 18 at San Francisco's Opera Plaza Theater. Join us for three hours of indie shorts, trailers, and general horror movie shenanigans, all presented by Horror Hostess Miss Misery (an awesome woman I had the pleasure of meeting at Wondercon this year). If you can’t make it, please wish me luck!

Panel by Panel

In other horror-related news, I also spent a good deal of time working on my very first comic book project. I learned a huge amount about comic scripting in a very short amount of time thanks to an excellent, patient editor (Enrica Jang, who is a marvelous comic writer herself. Check out her comic Azteca).


At this point, it’s all in the (very capable) artist’s hands, and soon I’ll have a link to share. All I can say is that it involves zombies (natch) and a certain favorite storyteller of mine.

Summer Plans

As if a film festival and comic project weren’t enough, there’s some big news on a more personal front: the Professor and I are in the midst of planning our first international trip together! We’ll be spending two weeks this summer in beautiful Thailand (mostly in Bangkok), hosted by some very generous friends. It still feels very surreal, but incredibly exciting.

Photo by D.Alyoshin

We haven’t had an adventure of this caliber since…well, ever! So, any tips and tricks for these newbie globe-trotters is most welcome.

Mind: "Hello, Brooklyn"

Recently, I answered a call for stories for about one' first time hostelling, put out by the San Diego Council of Hostelling International. I was excited to see that not only did they post my story on their website, but they also chose mine for their newsletter! You can see the story -- and read some other travel stories -- on their website, or just check mine out below:

Hello, Brooklyn

Two double beds with faded maroon covers. An old radiator that had been painted over so many times its slots were clogged with dull ivory blobs. A corner crumbling into powdery hunks of drywall. And a curtain that promptly fell down as soon as I tried to close it against the night.

It was perfect.

25 years old, and I'd never traveled further east from California than Arizona. I'd never traveled alone, except to visit waiting family just an hour's plane ride away. Now, here I was, more than 2,500 miles from home in the one American city I'd always dreamed of visiting: Brooklyn, New York.

Sure, it's not London or Bangkok, but to this Cali-girl, Brooklyn was a slice of American exotica. New accents, new flavors, and a whole new city skyline. They even drank a different brand of bottled water. It was like being in a new country: the East Coast. Call me simple, but that was were I'd always wanted to start my globetrotting adventures.

My partner-in-crime was a much more travel-savvy friend who had flown down to meet me from Ottawa. She had made our arrangements with ease -- even springing for the plane ticket that had brought me from the City by the Bay to the Big Apple -- including booking us in at the YMCA hostel in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood. Staying at a hostel wasn't a matter of saving a little cash…it was a matter of making the trip financially feasible at all. No hostel, no trip.

Never having stayed in a hostel, I was naturally nervous, imagining nightmare scenarios of communal gym-room showers and forced chores ala college co-op housing. Even though I was soothed a bit by the knowledge of our private room reservation (and that no manual labor was required), I was still a bit skeptical.

My doubts began to dissipate as soon as we walked in the door. The front desk staff was friendly, which was especially welcoming at 1 a.m. in a whole new place -- and after a massively delayed flight. What was not so welcoming was that we had to lug our heavy suitcases up six flights of steps. But we made it.

A post-flight shower was definitely in order, even at that hour. Grabbing our thin-but-blindingly-clean towels, we wandered off towards what we thought was the ladies room…only to find ourselves wandering in circles through the oppressively hot hostel hallways.

We smelled him before we saw him round the corner, clouds of old summer sweat heralding the arrival of who we later dubbed "The Stinkiest Man in Brooklyn." He was also one of the nicest men we met in Brooklyn, as he stopped to ask two confused strangers if they were lost. He quickly straightened us out – "ladies' room is on the fifth floor" – before disappearing into his room with a polite, "good night."

Afterwards, clean and refreshed (and relieved that the showers did indeed have stalls), we happily toasted our hostel room with bottles of Poland Springs water, thanking our stars that the AC worked perfectly in the humid 90 degree night. I was so exhausted that I slept like a rock on the surprisingly cushy bed, and awoke with glee to find a whole new cityscape peeking out at me through the broken curtains, just begging to be explored.

Eye: The Good Land

"In fact, it's pronounced 'mill-e-wah-que' which is Algonquin for 'the good land.'" -- Alice Cooper

Now that I've utterly dated myself by quoting Wayne's World, let me share with you my impressions of Milwaukee, WI.

Amazing beer:

(Seriously, tears came to my eyes drinking this Black Bavarian, it was so friggin' good).

Amazing cheese:

Truly, it is the good land.

(Okay, really, I saw more of Milwaukee than this. But I didn't get pictures of it. So. Beer. Cheese. Until I can steal some landscape photos from my brother.)

Eye: My Kind of Town (Chicago Is)

We came...

We saw...

We screened a film!

In a nutshell, last weekend was a whirlwind of highs and lows, marvels and the mundane, and surprises and disappointments. There was never a dull moment, and I have to say, the Midwest can be one crazy place! All in all, I had a hell of a good time, and can't wait to have more than 48 hours to explore it.

Eye: Rearview Mirror

Rearview Mirror
Originally uploaded by Zhad_Squad

Taken in front of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD.

A truly inspiring museum for works by self-taught artists, filled with whimsical creations ranging from art quilts to microscopic sculptures carved into pencil leads. You can't help but be inspired here.

Eye: How I spent my summer vacation

Chillin' with one of my favorite writers in Baltimore, MD.

June came and went in a flash. I looked up today and it hit me that yes, we are now in July...so much so the 4th has passed and my 30th birthday is looming right around the corner. Criminy.

But not thinking of that today. Today, thinking of patching my poor old couch, starting a swimming regimen, and finally, FINALLY posting to my neglected blog.

Why has it been neglected so? Well, June began with me pulling my filmmaker hat off the shelf for my first-ever film festival screening, and then rapidly trading it for my traveling hat, as my husband and I took our first trip together to the East Coast.

Baltimore, MD, to be specific; five days in Baltimore and 24 hours in Washington, DC.

The Washington Monument, as seen from Constitution Gardens Lake.

I don't think I have words for the sheer wonder that was this trip. We stayed with a trio of our friends in Baltimore, who were generous enough to share their apartment space with us. So, aside from lots of sightseeing and feasting, there was lots of board games, Rock Band, laughing, and staying up too late talking on the balcony.

Blue crabs with Old Bay, ready to be devoured. Our hostess and her family treated us to a real Maryland crab dinner.

I'm still sorting through the 400+ photos I took on the trip, and I've begun posting them in a Baltimore/Washington DC Flickr set. So far, I'm through the first three days of the trip. Gotta get a move on...more to share soon!

The Capitol Building in the rain...the last stop on our 24-hour self-guided tour of the Mall.

Eye: My photo chosen for Schmap!

Yay! I just found out that one of the pictures I took of my trip to Portland was included in the Schmap!! Portland Guide!

Schmapp!! Kennedy School

I fell in love with McMenamins Kennedy School when I was in Portland, wandering the hallways that still held the friendly ghosts of childhoods long past. Once an elementary school, the good folks at McMenamins transformed the place into a brewery/pub/movie theater/hostel.



The beer was amazing, and I spent a dreamy afternoon watching the cherry blossoms dance across the roiling gray sky through the industrial-grade wooden windows in the bar. It's memories like this that have made me almost certain I want to uproot from the Bay Area and re-plant myself in Portland's rich soil...

Mouth: The Tea Party

Three weeks flies by way too quickly. Here I am trying to regularly blog, and before I know it, my weekend off to visit my family turns into 20 days of "I'll sit down and write tomorrow."

In these 20 days, though, I've planned and executed a surprise Mother's Day trip across the state, finished my first semester-long painting class (which included a five-week painting and an 11x11 painting for my final exam, both due this past Monday), locked sound for my short film with my brilliant friend/sound designer, and put the finishing touches on a tea towel I've been embroidering off and on. Lots of accomplishments and endings! Pictures will be posted soon of the completed projects, now that I have time to set up some proper "photo shoots."

I do have a few pictures, though, of my ambush-trip home. Part of the surprise for my Mama was a reservation for two at a tea room we had long wanted to try, Julian Tea & Cottage Arts in Julian, CA.


I'll admit it now, I have a not-so-secret love of teatime and tea parties. One of my favorite things in the world is to sit back in a foofy little tea room with an endless pot of black tea and lots of delicate nibbles, pretending I'm a graceful lady for a couple hours. It's a nice escape from my hectic (and often graceless) pace, where I can just kick back among beautiful things with good company and relaaaaax. While slowly caffeinating myself to the gills. Pure bliss.



Though the tea room was a little on the small side for my druthers (especially with a rambunctious family at the table right next to us), the service was attentive and the food was divine: beatifully browned sausages wrapped in flaky philo dough, crispy cucumber sandwiches with a fresh dill spread, and fruit-sweetened cream cheese spread over locally-baked raisin/date bread, just to name a few of the dainties. Not to mention, the home-made pomegranate jelly, which was amazing on their bite-sized scones. It broke my heart to know they didn't sell that heavenly jam to go...but at least I know where to track it down now. Well worth the hour-long drive through the arid North County hills (not to mention the flight down from the Bay Area)!

Eye: The Arms of Central Park

"Canopy"

Central Park in the fall, the first she'd ever seen. The crisp sunlight threw dappled shapes onto the worn pavement through the trees, which sighed contentedly in the cool breeze. The first caress of winter had tinted the very edges of the leaves in brown lace, preparing them for their new, cold weather wardrobe.

She was not looking up, though, nor out at the park. She stared only at her traveling companion's denim-draped back, at the impatient feet briskly trotting away from her. The silence between them had grown as long as the tunnel of fresh green ahead; the chill encroaching as surely and steadily on their words as it was on the greenery.

It was only a matter of time before winter fell.

Eye: Portland's April

"School Window"

The fog engulfed the old school like an afghan knit of cobwebs, softening the impact of the outside world until it was no more than a blunt whisper. Only the lone cherry blossom tree in the courtyard reminded the children what color was, what life awaited beyond the dusty windows...

...the fragile promise of sunlight, the hope of Spring's first kiss.

Eye: Far from Home

"Vegas, Brooklyn"

Come in...come in pull up a chair. The heat is swelling outside, choking throat and thought alike. Find yourself a cool, dark corner, and refresh yourself with iced, mint drinks and familiar songs. No one will bother you. We're all refugees from the Brooklyn summer here.