First Apartment

 The Bangkok Christian Guest House (BCGH) was an interesting place to hang out. It was originally a house for a Presbyterian missionary family on the outskirts of Bangkok, but as Bangkok and missionary presence grew after World War II, it became a guest house used by missionaries and visitors from a variety of organizations. Located just off Silom Rd, it is in a prime business and entertainment district of the city. When we arrived in 1982, the BCGH was already in at least it’s third iteration and was completely rebuilt again in 2003.

What made the Guest House interesting was and remains the people that stay there. In 1982 and for years to come, “upcountry” missionaries from the Thailand Baptist Missionary Fellowship (TBMF) group generally stayed there when visiting Bangkok for business or pleasure. Likewise, visiting note-worthies from a variety of mission organizations would stay there as well. It seemed that to stay at the BCGH would allow a person to see almost anyone in the Baptist (and other) mission and NGO world at that time. Of course, a lot has changed since 1982 and guest house and hotel options have multiplied exponentially all across Bangkok and Thailand, but for us, the BCGH remains our go-to Bangkok destination.

Bangkok however was a stopping point, but not our real destination in Thailand. We were headed to Chiang Mai and beyond to do work among the Karen. Our first assignment though, which was estimated to take about one year, was to learn the Thai language and get culturally adjusted and this was to happen in Bangkok. The BCGH culture is a hybrid Western, Thai, International culture and deemed not a good environment for adapting to the “real Thailand”. So, Bob and Pat Coats and the TBMF office staff went to work right away to find us an apartment to live in while attending language school. To our recollection, we were only in the BCGH for a week or maybe two, then we moved into a one bedroom, furnished apartment. In the photo we are sitting in the living room of that apartment showing off some fans we had bought.

We’ll get to the negatives, but the apartment was generally a good situation for us.  It was within a 15 minute or so walk to Union Language School where we were scheduled to learn Thai. The TBMF office and BCGH were about halfway between the language school building and our apartment so we could pick up our mail and do any business needed as we went back and forth. Being furnished, it was easy to move into and we didn’t have to worry about buying a bunch of things we’d only use for a year. The freight we had shipped would be stored for us until we got to Chiang Mai as we didn’t really need it. It hadn't arrived yet anyway.

The apartment building was called Sukorn Court and was located on North Sathorn Road which is a busy multi lane road divided in the middle with a klong or canal. One of the downsides to our apartment was that the entrance off of Sathorn Rd was right at a traffic light. Massive numbers of cars would stop at the traffic light when red which was fine. The problem was when the light turned green the same massive number of cars would simultaneously stomp on the accelerator to surge forward en masse. The race was on to the next traffic light 100 yards away, but it was a race with no winners.  The green light cacophony was deafening. We had a small swimming pool at the apartment and to get away from the traffic noise, I used to hold my breath and sink to the bottom of the pool and stay as long as I could. It was blissfully quiet underwater and I got pretty good at holding my breath but I still had to come up for air.

For an idea of what Bangkok traffic could be like, just across Sathorn Rd from our apartment, maybe 100 yards “as a crow flies”, was the apartment of Baptist missionaries Paul and Winnie Dodge. The TBMF missionaries took turns hosting weekly prayer meetings and it was the Dodges’ turn. If we walked to their apartment, it would take just a few minutes. But on this night, it was raining and we didn’t want to get wet. We’d recently gotten access to a vehicle, so we thought we’d drive to the Dodges and keep dry. We hopped into our little pickup truck and squeezed into the traffic only to discover the traffic was completely stopped. We couldn’t go forward, backwards, sideways or anyways. It took us a full hour to cross the street. I think we missed the prayer meeting but at least we were in time for snacks!