Loading ...The Arranged Marriage Delusion
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More of us are in arranged marriages than we think, content to believe in an idea of marriage freedom we never practice
Last December I received an invitation from a groom-to-be for his wedding in India. It was to be held outside Delhi and promised to be an extravagant affair. Hundreds of dishes. Over a thousand guests. His mother is a prominent Indian political official and plenty of political big wigs would be in attendance.
I’d met Sanjit barely a year before when I was passing through Delhi. At that time, he was not dating anyone. He was not placing profiles on dating columns. He’d come to Thailand with five friends in July and e-mailed me several times with travel questions. No mention of a girlfriend back home, of love blooming amidst the Indian monsoons. Then, all of the sudden, in November, I found out he was getting married.
Sanjit’s marriage was arranged. When I first met him, in India for another wedding, he was in the company of his cousins, all of a similar age between 27-28. There was talk then of Sanjit having to get married before his cousin Ajit, who in turn had to be paired off before his other cousin Eashan. Sanjit was several months older than Ajit, and Ajit several months older than Eashan.
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Casino Milk Chocolate from France
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Casino Milk Chocolate: France
I studied French over three decades ago and for just three years, yet even today, I can still understand most of what I read on a Casino chocolate label. Not that my French education was any good. I’ve probably learnt more French reading French chocolate bars than I did in class those many years ago.
The French word ‘lait’ is milk, and it’s been late in the game for me to finally get around to trying Casino’s solo milk chocolate offering. I tried Casino’s milk chocolate before, with bits of caramel, about a year-and-a-half ago. and I graded the milk chocolate pretty satisfactory back then, able to stand on its own without hiding behind the caramel filling.
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Valrhona Tanariva from France
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Valrhona Tanariva: France
Valrhona from France has its tentacles all over the place, in every cacao-growing continent on the planet, it seems. With so much control over its bean sources, it can utilize beans from different locales to create a variety of bars with similar cocoa solid concentrations. Witness the Manjari-Caraibe-Guanaja triumvirate. The cocoa solid content only differs by several percent in all three of these bars, but the cocoa is sourced from a different continent for each bar.
You got a similar dynamic going on with the Tanariva and the Jivara. Both are billed as milk chocolate bars. Jivara’s got 40% cocoa solids. Its a darker milk chocolate, with some of its bean content sourced from Ecuador. Valrhona won’t let on where the rest of the beans come from. Tanariva’s beans hail from Madagascar. Remember Madagascar? Valrhona sure does. They get their Manjari beans from there. If the Chinese can get three dishes out of one Peiking duck, Valrhona can be expected to get two bars’ worth out of possibly the same plantation’s beans.
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Valrhona Caraibe from France
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Valrhona Caraibe: France
Harmonious and sensual. That’s the name of the game with Valrhona’s Caraibe bar according to the manufacturer. One guess as to where the Trinitario beans in this bar come from: 1) Africa 2) South America 3) South Pacific 4) the Caribbean. Hint: read the name of the bar again.
Valrhona doesn’t mention which Caribbean countries it sources the beans from, so like the Abinao, I have to conclude those countries vary from year to year. This bar was one among four varieties in a Valrhona taster pack my wife picked up at her hotel bakery during a special chocolate promotion. Two of the bars, the Guanaja and the Jivara, were favorably reviewed about two years ago at the Chocolate Republic. The 8-bar taster pack, two of each variety, spans the chocolates from 33% all the way up to 70%
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Valrhona Abinao from France
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Valrhona Abinao: France
My wife’s hotel has recently been offering a promotion of Valrhona. She surprised me by coming home with a collection of five different bars, several of which I’ve reviewed on the Chocolate Republic site before. This is my wonderful wife working to keep our marriage fresh (the chocolates were manufactured quite recently) and sweet (but not too sweet with the sugar content in high cacao solid bars relatively low).
Finding a Valrhona bar is a big deal in Thailand. There must be no established importer because I’ve never seen Valrhona for sale at any of the usual import shops and gourmet markets. Luxuries never come cheap in Thailand. As expensive as these bars are in competitive nations, they cost an additional 30% over here. Only kings — the King of Thailand and his family — are likely to be able to get Valrhonas on a regular basis over here.
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Casino Dark Chocolate Truffle Fantasy from France
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Casino Dark Chocolate Truffle Fantasy: France
Big C is one of two of our neighborhood supermarkets. Yeah, there are two, located directly across a main thoroughfare from each other. Big C is the leading supermarket chain here in Thailand, and after 1999, French operator Groupe Casino took a majority stake in the operation.
This is all back story you could probably care less about and might wonder why it’s of any relevance to the Chocolate Republic. Stop wondering. France is the reason. Groupe Casino’s majority stake in Big C puts French-made products under the Casino brand name in all Big C stores, things like coffee, pasta, and chocolate. The labels are entirely in French, the products are made (or at least packaged) in France, but the prices, for reasons I cannot explain, are inexpensive. Thailand is not a country where imports come cheap. For premium bars like Valrhona you can pay double for the bar in Thailand, if you can find it, than you would pay back in France. Big C, through its connection to Groupe Casino, must not be paying much or any import duty on these bars. Only Ikea sells Euorpean-made bars cheaper in Thailand than Big C.
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Heidi White & Hazelnuts from Romania
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Heidi White & Hazelnuts: Romania
Former Communist and gypsy vanguard, Romania, provides a safe haven to Heidi Chocolat, manufacturers of some of Europe’s ‘finest’ chocolates, if you believe Heidi’s own PR. Come to Heidi’s for “the chocolate side of life,” they boast.
Heidi’s Milk & Almonds bar, the first Heidi bar I tried, wasn’t bad. But me forgive me for thinking that when I pay that much per bar, I should expect something more on par with above average Belgian or Swiss chocolates. Heidi talks a good game of expanding all around the world, using the most premium ingredients, all the usual b.s. every other manufacturer mouthes, without actually being able to deliver anything amazing.
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Heidi Milk & Almonds from Romania
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Heidi Milk & Almonds: Romania
Long time, no hear from the Chocolate Republic. Good reason, too. In the last few months, I just haven’t been able to get my hands on enough unusual and different chocolate brands to be worth my while to review. Sure, I could review a brand that’s already up here, but with with almonds instead of hazelnuts, but frankly (non-existent) fans out there, what’s the point? The newly reviewed bar wouldn’t taste a whole lot different from the old.
I stumbled upon the Heidi brand as my wife and I were visiting the local gourmet import shop. My criteria for selecting Heidi was very, very simple. Heidi was manufactured in Romania, a country which doesn’t yet feature on the Chocolate Republic, and it was a chance to review a new bar after an overlong hiatus.
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You won’t stay dry or fun-loving for very long over Songkran
“Thailand has lots of holidays and festivals. But those other special days — say the Vegetarian Festival — require the visitor to eat weird foods or learn something specific about the culture. For merrymaking foreigners, Songkran is the perfect holiday. All they need do is get drunk and use a squirt gun.” Doug Knell, Doug’s Republic
Doug’s Republic already features a public holiday section for Thailand. Why then is it so important that Songkran gets its own special section?
Because as I’ve observed, Songkran is the one Thai-specific holiday foreigners know, remember, and wish to experience … once. I’ve yet to meet a foreigner who knows when or what Buddhist Lent day is. Or Coronation Day. Or the Royal Plowing Ceremony Day. I’ve lived in Thailand for awhile and every time my wife tells me such-and-such a a national holiday is approaching, I have to ask her what the holiday is. Not for Songkran. Everyone here knows what Songkran is and unless you go out to some rural hamlet, you are forced to experience it.
Songkran is celebrated all over Southeast Asia, but it’s Thailand that put it on the map. You could call this the Thai New Year’s Day, and it’s celebrated at the hottest time of the year, at least from April 13 to 15. Hua Hin celebrated it en masse for just the first day. In Chiang Mai, festival revelers started partying two days earlier and continued through the 16th. In Kanchanaburi, the holiday was celebrated for four days. In Pattaya, there were also Songkran festivities a week after the official event. When my father-in-law was in the country, we went to Khao San Road, the tourist ghetto of Bangkok. Although Songkran hadn’t officially started, people were already in full party celebration mode. In Koh Chang, the holiday was celebrated for all three days.
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Health In Thailand
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Take your pick. The Thai medical establishment is waiting for you and your wallet.
“It was inevitable Thailand would develop a health tourism industry. The country already had the vast tourist arrivals requiring medical care from time to time after abusing on drink, drugs, and dregs. It was just a matter of time before Thailand went after citizens in other countries to cure their medical ailments before they could abuse themselves here on drink, drugs, and dregs. “ Doug Knell, Doug’s Republic
There is a common misperception that Thailand is a Third World basket case economy with commensurate medical care.
There is also the opposite misperception among, obviously, different individuals that Thailand’s hospitals are among the best in the world. This depends upon which hospitals we’re talking about. As of 2010, the Ministry of Public Health listed slightly more than a thousand public hospitals and 316 private hospitals. A small percentage of those private hospitals enjoy a reputation as showpiece hospitals, hospitals held up by Thailand to the rest of the world to show that Thailand can perform a bypass or a sex change or a hair transplant as good as the best of ‘em, but at a fraction the cost. Outside Bangkok and other key tourist areas where these showpiece hospitals operate, the claim that Thailand’s hospitals are some of the best in the industry should be taken as seriously as Drew Barrymore’s acting talents.
In today’s global economy, nations try to stand out any way they can. 36% of Thailand’s economy is based on manufacturing, and 6-7% on tourism. Thailand has been playing its huge tourist influx to its advantage by encouraging arrivals to stop on by for a botox treatment or a crown implant. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has gotten in on the act with a medical portal. You can look up the procedure you desire and see who’s performing it. The site boasts that as of 2013, Thailand has 17 Joint Commission International (JCI) certified hospitals. This is an American certification, and for what it’s worth, the standard by which consumers worldwide can assess whether a non-American hospital meets international standards. In reality, there are likely a lot more non-JCI certified hospitals in Thailand that would more than suffice for most consumers’ needs. You must know how the game is played by now. Certifying bodies convince a business why it needs certification and why they, as the certifying organization, are worth paying .
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