24 Hours In Zurich

In early May, I joined Nuch's flight to Zurich. Similar to our trips to Rome, Frankfurt, and Narita, we only had 24 hours, so we didn't have a chance to do a lot.

Here's a quick review of what we did and saw.

A bridge and a church


A statue



It was raining, so we bought an umbrella near Lake Zurich


For a snack, we stopped for some wieners and beer.

The highlight of the trip were these ketchup and mustard dispensers. To get your ketchup and mustard you had to milk them like cow udders.

Swan in the lake

Same church and bridge from another angle

Proof we were there together

Pictures of Nuch

and finally, a view of the Alps on the way home.

Move To The Country

After a year living in the heart of Bangkok, Nuch and I decided to move to the country.

Here are some pictures of our place taken on the day we moved in. I'll post some more once we've decorated. In particular, I'm waiting for a couch to be specially made.

Until then...

Balcony view


Our condo is the only building within miles, so it's home to a million pigeons. This plastic crow is supposed to scare them away.

Living Room

Our condo is as wide as the building, so we have a balcony on the front and back, which is good for a cross breeze.

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Bathroom

Guest Bedroom (actually, this has become Nuch's walk-in closet)

Laundry room

Like A Glove

The office of our Malaysian supplier is being remodeled, so when duty called after my morning coffee, I was forced to use the worker's latrine.

When I opened the door, I had a flash back to my first days in the Peace Corps.

No seat, no air conditioning, no toilet paper, and no Sports Illustrated!!!

Only a hole in the ground and a bucket of water (not shown).


Already at the point of no return, I assumed the position and recalled some sagely advice from a fellow Peace Corps volunteer. After several beers, he had divulged that the secret is to "let the water act like a glove, a protective barrier, if you like".

Intrigued, I asked, "so, if you do it right, the sh*t never really touches your hand?"

"Wishful thinking, my friend. Wishful thinking."

The real secret is to wash your hands vigorously afterwards, and then, hope you can forget the entire experience.

Ko Lanta - The Airport Island Resort Restaurant

The other day, Nuch and I tried Ko Lanta, a restaurant near our place. It's also adjacent to the runway of Bangkok's International Airport. When they're landing, the planes are so close that you can see people's heads looking out the window, who are probably wondering, "why the hell would someone build a restaurant right next to a runway?"

These are some pictures from their website.

Surprisingly, it's rather peaceful. There are several waterfalls throughout the restaurant that provide a soft ambient noise that covers the roar of passing jet engines - except for 747's. When they pass, you can't hear yourself think.

Some more pictures...

The centerpiece in the main hall is a giant sculpture, depicting a tower of stallions that look like they are trying to escape the fires of hell in Dante's Inferno.

and the food's not bad.

Battle Of The Sexes

A couple weeks before the Battle of Bangkok, there was the Battle of the Sexes, when Thailand held its Miss Thailand and Miss Tiffany contests.

Here is Miss Thailand - Fonthip Watcharatrakul.

Here is the Miss Tiffany winner - George.

That's right, she's a man, baby!!!


Fortunately, I think it's safe to say that Thailand's naturally-born women won the battle of the sexes and are still more attractive than their hormonally altered rivals.

Miss Thailand photos:

...but not by much. Very scary, indeed.

Miss Tiffany photos:

The Battle Of Bangkok

I've been gathering photos from recent days and wanted to put them in a photo-blog. Being that there are so many worthy pictures, I've broken them down into three groups.

The Red Shirts

The Military

and

The City


All pictures were taken from the Boston Globe, Time, a photojournalist named Vaitor, and a number of Twitterers on the scene

The Reds Shirts