Where Is That Town?

A group German hams came to Thailand in.  Same as the hams in every country, they wanted to operate the radio station in Thailand at least once.

RAST had the privilege from the Post And Telegraph Office to allow their members operate and Use HS0AC, their club station call sign, for not more than 2 weeks.

The club station was opposite my house before both my house and the club moved, and I used to take care to RAST’s guests, also their license if they needed.  That was how I got to know Ralf DL2FDK, Heinz nowHS0ZEW, and Robert DL9MDZ.

Soon after they went back, their friend, Bernd, came on business trip.  The hotel he stayed was on the same road as the club station and he had tried to catch the bus.  It was difficult for me to explain.  My English was more limited  than my limited English now, so I decided to take a bus to the hotel to show him how to go to the club station. 

I was there before noon time.  Bernd offered me lunch the hotel’s coffee shop.  While talking we found so much similarity between he and me.  Many times we said the same words in the same time, and got a good laugh.  By the time we stop laughing and started the trip, it was almost evening.

Bernd had visited Thailand again a few times on his business trip.  On weekend we brought him for sight seeing.  His most favorite food was fruits, and among the fruits was Saapparod – or Pineapple. 

At the same time, Rudolf, DL1ZAV who was using the 7Z1AB in Saudi Arabia often come to Thailand on his every 2 months vacation.  He taught me about the Packet Radio.  He was a very serious teacher.. but I was not that good student.  When talking about the ham cluster, I really could not understand nor imagine it.

In 1994, Bernd arranged with DARC to have the invitation to the Ham Fair in Friedrichshafen which was the second large from Dayton Ham Convention.  He said. “Thida, You MUST come and see the Packet radio and cluster by yourself.”

And there it was, my first only trip out of Asia.

Garuda Airline

This time I had a little experiences.  Heidi told me that the best place to buy air ticket in Thailand was Khaosaan road where most of the back packers stayed.  There were so many ticket agencies that it was difficult to choose one. 

Along the road, there were many student ID cards service.  The faces on the cards were much older than normal students here.  I knew later that students always had special discount so people would like to be student by cards.

I finally got into one agency shop.  The officer was very helpful.  She suggested some non-stopped flights and said, if I did not mind Muslim food, Garuda Airline was having promotion. 

Are you the same as me, that hardly have seen a ham have difficulty with international food? 

I took Garuda.  The flight left in the evening, flied for 11 hours, and the arrival time was 6 am.  I planed to have 8 hours sleeping, by preparing some handy cRalf to do on the first 3 hours before getting to sleep. 

We were following the sunset.  The sky was in deep orange, deep red, with some part black and was like that for a long time.  The color was amazingly beautiful.

I wanted to go for a walk along the isle.  Stood up, turn to the back of the plane, what was that?  A  man on one of the seats there were had 2 very big black rabbit’s ears beside the head resting part.  I looked again carefully and could not help laughing.  The people sitting behind him had put both feet over his head. 

I grasped for my camera, too late.  The owner of the seat had did something and the guy put his feet down.  I really did not understand how that could happen. 

I found that the being on the air for a long time made me feel very thirsty.  Most of the passengers were sleeping after meal including the hostess.  What should I do?  I kept in my mind that I must prepare a bottle of water with me on the way back.

Exactly 8 hours before the arrival time I tried to sleep..

The trying was continued for quite sometime.. and I had to wake up almost as soon as I slept.  The whole cabin was bright and the hostesses started to serve breakfast.  I surprisingly looked at the clock.  It was 2 hours and a half before the arrival time.. It seemed like I had only 2 hours sleeping..

How clever I was !!

14 degree Celsius

Bernd told me to be prepared for the 14 degree in Germany so I  wore the wool sweater and another jacket.  I was glad I did so.  It was cold in the plane.

Finally I reached Frankfurt.  My excitement decreased.  The airport was almost the same as our Don Meuang  Airport.  Only instead of Thai letters on the sign, it was German. 

I followed the other passengers to the immigration.  While waiting in line, one of the officer came right to me, called me out of the line.  I was not very surprised because I heard that an Thai lady who traveled alone might have problem with the immigration. 

I was prepared to face the problem.  But the officer asked for my passport, looked at me, laughed, stamped and let me go.  He probably thought that I was a child.  Compared the size of the rest of the people in line, I really looked like child.  He might laughed when seeing that I had married, or what was the reason I did know.

I looked for the belts, but the rest of the people went out of the immigration zone without baggage.  !?!?!?! What did this mean?  I saw Ralf and his Thai girlfriend - Pee’ Yupin but what to do with my baggage.  Ralf laughed and said that the belt was out there.

He helped me collecting the baggage, went to a machine to pay for the parking.. and went to his car.  I was sweating in my sweater, wonder how come the 14 degree in German was so much warmer than it was in Thailand.

Ralf has a lovely house with small area full of plants and flowers.  I got off the car and there it was, my 14 dregree..

“Wow!  The German government is so rich that they provide the air condition outside.”

Antenna Tuam

Put my baggage in Ralf’s radio room which would be my bed room for that night, Ralf and Pee’ Yupin brought me up on the hill, visiting the satellite control station.  They were so kind to let me inside to take photo.  It was something I had never seen before.

There were some hams got together to welcome me.  We had small coffee break.  After coffee, tea and some delicious snack the ladies washed the dishes.  I went to help them.  The way of washing was different from what I did in Thailand.  They only put the dishes in soap water, the put them under hot water to clean the soap.  I washed them my way, using sponge and hands to wash the dishes and cups.

Suddenly they exclaimed. “Oh, too bad, the hot water was running out.” 

We had to continue washing without hot water.  To my surprise, the water was colder and colder, and very soon it was as cold as the water in the shield compartment of the refrigerator.  Soon I stopped washing, kept watching the water. 

“What are you looking for?”  One of the ladies asked.
“I am waiting to see whether the ice cubes will fall out from the tab.”

There must be some, I was sure.

Then Ralf and Pee’ Yupin took me to the Antenna tuam, or antenna tower.  It was on the hill.  Where we parked the car, there were about a hundred of big motorcycles decorated nicely.  It was very interesting.  I got off the car.  It was very windy.  Ralf asked me whether I needed a jacket. 

“I guess no.”  I told him.  He said ok and walked ahead.  Only for 3 steps I had to call him,  “Ralf, I guess yes”  He laughed and brought me his big jean jacket.

All of the tower made from wood.  No even a metal nail in it.  Inside there were a lot of antennas of various frequencies.  There was a sign in front of the door, not allow those who use pacer.  I asked Ralf for the reason.  He laughed

“Nothing much,  only your heart will beat as 145 Mega beats per second.” 

Ha ha, how silly I was.

Ralf showed me the repeater he was taking care of, and many other kinds of antenna which I had never seen before, also all the satellite dishes in the glass building.  Again to my surprise, while in Thailand we had to cool down the antennas and the system, there they had to heat them up.

From the glass windows around the building, I looked outside.  It was a nice sunny day.  A lot of people walked in the sun in the middle of the grass lawn.  I saw a pretty lady warring very short pant, no sleeve very short blouse, almost like bikini.  I looked at myself, staying in the heated room, warring thick Jean jacket.. and laughed to myself.

Broken Home

Germany was very beautiful.  Pretty little houses along the clean river in the bright sunny day, made it look like the pictures in the fairy tale books.  Ralf and Pee’Yupin took me to a beautiful small town.  Every part that could have flowers grow was flowering.  People were walking happily in the sunshine.  Parents and blooming children everywhere.

The church was cool, serene, quiet and so high that you would feel you were so unimportant like dust in God’s finger.  That must be a secret of majesty

There was a little girl with her mother, lighten the candles.  Her cheeks were very round and very red, like a walking apple.

In the evening, we went for a walk.  We visited Ralf’s father.  Ralf said,

“My father lived with his wife.”
“His wife?!?!  Not your mother?!?!?”
“My mother lived with her husband.”
“!?!?!?”

It seemed to be very common to him.  It was different here.  When father and mother were separated, the children would be unhappy.  Some became aggressive.  We usually said they were broken home children.

I believe it is much better when the children have both parents with love and care to each other and to them.  But if the family had to break up, it is better that the children could accept it like that.

I almost get divorced long time back, but I had to think carefully because I had 2 children.  Yes, a man and a woman who came from different background lived with each other for the love and the better living.  If it brought stress and sadness it would be ok to separate and look for new life. 

But if you had children it would be different.  Family was all of their life.  Father and mother belong to them.  They did not choose to be born to us.  We brought them to the family.  It was not fair to them to take away their belonging while they could not even protect it or protest.

Lucky I could keep my family and learned the secret of having a happy family for the kids, for my husband and myself.

Where Is That Town?

The next day they sent me to Wisenhousen where Bernd lived.  Ralf drove on the Autobahn, the high way with no speed limit.  Wow!! Very interesting. 

I heard that the airplane could fly up on the air at the speed of 240 km./hour.  If Ralf’s car had wings, we would had flied up.

Suddenly Ralf had to slow down his car.  He complaint

“Oh Traffic Jam.  There must be some accident ahead”

Traffic Jam?  I looked at his speed gauge.  It showed 60 km./hour.  I laughed.

“Ralf, at this speed in Bangkok, we consider it no traffic.”  But yes.  Compared with 240 km./hour this really could be called traffic jam.

Soon we passed the accident.  I started to look around.  The Autobahn  had very good design.  Each exit had a large sign telling us name of the towns it led to.  I noticed that there was a town which all exists led to.  This should not be possible unless the town must be in the middle of the area and we drove in circle.

 “Ralf, is the sign Ausfahrt means, exit?”
“Yes…  Why do you laugh?”
“ha ha ha ha..  I was wondering where the town was that all the exits led to..”

Closer to Wisenhousen, Ralf turned on his radio.  Bernd was waiting.  They spoke for while then Ralf handed to microphone to me.

“Hello, how are you?  HS1ASC de DL8UI.”
“I am surprised.”
“why?”
“I never know that you could speak such a very good German.”

ha ha ha ha.

But it was true.  His English was good.  For a few years we had communicate, I never heard him spoke in German before..

I did not realize that the comment became famous.

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