Thailand People Sure Do Love Their King

If there is something that is worth remember from the previous Thailand business trip, it was a citizens' "yellow fever."

When the limo driver brought us to the hotel from the Don Muang int'l airport, I kept wondering which big company monopolizes and provides yellow polo shirt to most of people in Thailand. My thought was completely wrong, it turns out that all Thai people from all sides of life are willingly to wear yellow in order to celebrate the King Bhumibol Aduyadej 60th anniversary accession to the throne. Last Thursday, the king has undergone a successful spinal lumbar surgery. On that day, the success of king's surgeon could be well contributed from devotions of thousands people through their serene pray on major temples around Thailand. Once again, people wore their beloved yellow polo shirt.. and the "fever" is definitely back.

I heard from my manager in Thailand that at first Government was the one who sold the yellow polo shirt to the public. However, it is unexpected that there are more people who buy the shirt than the supply available. As a result, price was soaring high and supply was running low. To fulfill people's need of the highly adored yellow polo shirt, "black market" actually get involved and play a good role in satisfying the rest of the unsatisfying needs. Black market was really common in Thailand, I was extremely tempted to get some of the DVDs sold on the street. You name it, they have it!!: devil wears prada, superman returns, family guy series, newest japanese movies and drama, newest korean movies, even...... pirates of caribbean: dead's man chest!!!! WTFOMG!! and all just for 100 Baht = 4 sing dollar = around 2.8 US$!

Often times, the owner of the CD stall also send some representatives to market some potential untapped market: the Sex/adult DVD. The way they do it is funny: the reps hold a 4X5 cards written "SEX/ADULT DVD/CD" and he hold it inside his palm on his hand. Whenever this reps see potential customers... they will flash it silently and with low voice to let us know that they have a tad of great collections of these "forbidden CD." Oh how do I know about this ? well, the reps thought I might be a potential customers. :-)...... ???

The operation manager finally managed to get us the yellow polo shirt on the second day. We finally blend in with the Thai people, and oh it is so much fun ! Sawadhika ~

The main difference between Thailand and Singapore is the environment. Like other British colony, Singapore is much more organized and cleaner than Thailand. On the other hand, Thailand is pretty much like Indonesia: scattered high rise buildings, traffic jams (everywhre!), old and dirty looking buildings, beggars, stray pets on the street, black markets selling: CD, electronics, machines, car radio, and much more along the street market alley crowded with people, super annoying red light (Thai traffic lights even show timer on the side of the box, and we saw one time the second is showing 200 seconds left counting down >_< D'oh.... that's annoyingly long for traffic jam). Therefore, the principal rule before you go to the office or go back to your home is going to the restroom first. One time, we saw a taxi driver walked out from the taxi in the middle of traffic jam and pee at the middle side of the road. The bad thing is, the middle part is quite high, so practically everyone could see him peeing...... from behind though.

When I went around Thailand, I can really feel the smell of my home town on my tip of the nose.... it is pretty much the same except that in my home town there are more mosques than temples :-)

I tried to blend in with everyone




So much of my adventure in Thailand, more about Thailand taxi driver is coming up!

Arrival in Bangkok

Bangkok is similar to Jakarta in a way. Upon arriving to Thai International airport, I could see and feel that the building is definitely not as modern as what I experienced in Singapore. The hallway is kinda dark with lighting only here and there. Although that time it was a little bit cloudy, there are still some traces of sun got through the window creating an additional lighting through the dim-lighted hallway. As what International visitor usually do, we walked to the immigration area to get our passport stamped. From that point on, I know Thailand is unique in their own way.

On a big neon sign mounted on the upper wall, it is written "WE LOVE (with a love sign) OUR KING." This week they are celebrating the 60th Anniversary of King's accession to the throne. I could see tourists everywhere on the left and right side of our queueing line. Oh, did I forget to mention that we are tourist, too? After getting through the immigration with relative ease, we were moving on to the arrival front gate full with people holding out signboards.

Our name is not there... I feel that I might have either misread the board or missed it completely. With awkward feeling, I went back, took a few steps, and read one-by-one all the signboards with their name on them. Oh bugger... could not find it still! A taxi service concierge were kind enough to lend us his mobilephone to contact to the office. After confirming with the secretary, we noticed that there should be other side of area deisgned specifically for hotel pickup. Without thinking, we just went there and found the hotel name and lists of patrons that need to be picked up.

It felt a bit weird as I am not used to this thing, but at the same time it always feels good to be an important person picked up by a nice BMV with drinks provided on the compartment in the middle of leather made seat.

I Leave my Heart in Singapore... not yet..

I grow to fall in love with Singapore. Its shopping mall, its cheap food, its authentic food, its environment, its transportation: in summary, everything is good here and oh gosh, I wanna live here one day if I could !! I heard the living expense is high, but oh heck, with such goodness around, who would refuse staying here even Singapore island is minuscule in size. And plus, the close proximity to my home country make it even more attractive as residing place in the future.

I have another interesting pics to share... food!

Misplaced things

Sometimes, when people want to achieve certain things, they don't really care anymore about details. While finishing fast might be good, but if the result is achieved in a such impulsive way, at the end it wont be satisfying... so the main lesson here is "take your time!!"










If one person stand in one of the urinal, where should I pee, ma ?!?

I Can't Believe I Saw The Real Thing ! KiKi Ippatsu! Hard Gay Version!

I walked around Cathay plaza in Singapore last week, then there was a shop selling otaku stuffs.. I could not believe what I see. A "Kiki Ippatsu" HG version by TOMY !! I saw an episode of RazorRamon Hardgay before where he tried to insist the TOMY president to make his version of the toy. He was so forceful to the point of visiting to president's house personally at nite. It turns out he made it!! and here is for you:

Sei-sei-sei !!!

Idol Craze

After all the hype about the androgynous lee jun ki in "King and the Clown," I heard from my Korean friend that a lot of male in Korea starts to fancy a plastic surgery. Most of them want to make one part of their face to be more feminine like.

I really don't understand this world anymore. Females become much more independent and financially stable, then they choose to be single nowadays. In Japan, there is an alarming rate in terms of increasing old people, this means women prefer to be career women. On the other hand, males becomes more and more feminine. Although all starts with metrosexual trends, nowadays male fashion moves towards female style... even in Japan, male starts carrying female-like "tote bag." Although actually I think some of them are cool (the long square vertical one), I still think some other can be actually used by female. -_-......

Think about it ?!? Idol is just a normal regular person running their daily lives. I even think that if they are not doing any show or publicity, they will be just a regular person studying in university or working in a bank. But some people actually idolize these idols like crazy godlike... Actually, what so special about having an idol?

Maybe after all, having an idol is just pure entertainment. Idol can make a free time to be more meaningful and productive. Idol can also enhance our network with people who have same preference, and Idol can also be used as example in real life. In conclusion, having an idol might brighten our life in certain way ! :-)


Example of Idol craze:

Yamashita Craze

Super Band (just like Singapore Idol) Craze

As for me, I will stick my otakuites pride with Imaginary character as an Idol !

How can I resist that thing...

Constantly Moving

Today is a bit slow day for me. I tried to finish up my reading "a fortune teller told me." I found the reading is fascinating as the writer embark in a journey throughout Asia without catching any planes and at the same time try to analyze the mystic of magic and spiritual meaning of geomancy. Often times, it also desribes the unique characteristics of people at places he visited.
Overall, it was pretty decent book, although at times it could be a bit draggy, but the insights offered by the book is interesting.

I think it is a bad habit for me to get another book although one book is not finished yet. I finally found the book that I really want quite a long time ago: "48 laws of power" concise edition ! yay, so I dont really need to read the historical parts of the books to explain the implementation during old days. The book sounds evil as it offers Machiavelli type of life, but oh well, people do need power to exist in this cruel cruel world.

What did I do this weekend ? hmmm... I went to a piano concert as Singapore held an International music festival once a year. I think it was quite nice, I tried to enjoy the concert by closing my eyes... hopefully people didnt mistake it as dozing off during the concert. I still think I prefer opera than piano concert for 2 hours, I have the appreciation, but I just could not enjoy it fully.

I watched "King and the Clown" yesterday. It was the highest gross movie in Korea movie history with audience of 12 million. It was really good. My friends cried after watching it. Although personally I don't quite understand what is going on at first, but after my friend explained to me, I feel the need to re-watched the movie again. I think it was really deep and good. People might misunderstand it as another "brokeback" type of movie. But I think it talks more about deep bond of friendship and relationship. It also talked about much different thing than brokeback mountain, mainly politic in chosun era. After that movie, I heard the actor (Lee-Jun Ki) become the highest paid one in Korea, even higher than Rain.

I am a little lonely here in my cubicle. Among my thought is.... will I be like this in the future? I prefer more an active role in my life. Something like volunteer work that can see my effect of contribution directly through the smile of people or professional photographer which I can experience many things and share my excitement over something to everyone through the eyes of camera. Or even animation art director, who can contribute to the happiness of children and parents when the movies come out. Although I enjoy and excited about what I will do in next one year, I still feel I should have discovered my passion a long time ago before I pursue my current career. Hahaha, do I sound like I am in the totally different world already ?

then wake me up, it is all maybe just a dream....

Why Does Everyone Bother to Rub Shoulder at Tech Expo?

Last month there was a huge IT expo show in Singapore. Alng with the "Great Singapore Sale," everyone was flocking that area. When I entered the expo room with everyone, we were welcomed by people forming as a gate handing out flyers. It feels like wedding ceremony where people throw confetti to the newlywed. But the feeling is different since it feels like marrying to a geek: all the confetti replaced by either papers full with promotional super savvy notebook, gigantic mini-sized external storage, or super handy camera equipped with mp3, and other sophisticated techie stuffs I didn't even realize it existed!

So there I was, like a tiny ant... walk slowly passing the barricade of humans. I could smell the stench of sweat as well as excitement. All vendors were quite agressive in offering the best possible bargain price for customers, the technology was up-to-date, and plus, it is probably unique experience.










Although I ended up buying nothing, it was kinda fun to be part of the geek culture that has invaded our life.











Long life technology !!!!