Will The Real Miss Thailand Please Stand Up

To ensure that no General's daughter will be left out, Thailand has three major beauty pageants each year.

Miss Thailand Universe, Miss Thailand World, and most recently, "นางสาวไทย" or Miss Thailand.

Here is this year's winner: Miss Ornwipa Ganoknatisawat (Joey)

After extensive research, the only difference that I can discern between Miss Thailand and the other two pageants, aside from the words "World" and "Universe", is that the Miss Thailand pageant does not have a bathing suit competition.

Here are some more pics:

"One Step Forward, Please"

On the way back from a trip to China, I found this sign hanging above the urinals in the Shanghai Airport bathroom.


What a polite way of saying, "Don't leave you're tinkle on our floor"


I didn't take a picture, but it was quite apparent that nobody had paid any attention.

The 5th Sin

Much like in the US, Thailand requires advertisers to place public health warnings inside ads for alcoholic beverages - such as "Don't drink and drive", "Drink responsibly", "Can cause liver cancer", etc...

But the other day I found one that took it too the next level - literally.

Above the Guinness ad it says: "Deum Su-ra, Phit Sin Ko 5"

Which translates as - "Drinking is the 5th sin", referring to the Buddhist 5th commandment. In other words, if you drink this beer, you'll go to Hell.

But that's play school compared to the warnings they place on cigarettes. See below:

They should have public health warnings for simply looking at boxes of cigarettes:

"Warning: looking at this box will make you vomit."

Banana Burner

It's pretty small, but the sticker on the back of this car says:

"The monkey power of inside my car"

I've no clue what that means unless it's a twist on Japanese made rice burners.

The King Lives On

Thailand's 81 year-old King has been in the hospital for the last 5 weeks with pneumonia - not a good situation.


America's King, on the other hand, is alive and well. The other night he made a cameo at Country Road, when I was out with some friends.

The Burden Of Worldly Possessions

I remember reading about a Buddist monk, who explained that the general, nagging stress that we all feel from time to time does not come from an a$$hole boss, someone driving 35 in the fast lane, or the Gator's far-from-stellar offensive performance against Arkansas, but in fact, this stress comes from the burden of our worldly possessions.

Get rid of these "earthly necessities" and most of your problems will go away - but so will your cable TV, mobile phone, and air conditioning. It almost makes sense, but for the time being, I'll take my pain with my pleasure.

Anyway, this dichotomy between pleasure and pain is why I joined Nuch on a recent jaunt to the famous Patumwanaram Temple, which is a beautiful Buddhist oasis located in the heart of Bangkok's shopping district.

Almost anywhere you look in Thai culture you can find dualities, dichotomies, ironies, and hypocrisies, but this temple, tucked between Bangkok's two largest shopping centers (I'm talking about 6-story monstrocities dedicated to the gods of capitalism), is probably Thailand's most glaring example of how comfortably contradictions coexist within with Thai culture.

So, here we go. To avoid the congestion of the Central Shopping District, we took the Sky Train.



Here's a picture of the temple from the Central World Department Store. You can see the Paragon shopping center and IMAX theatre to the right and the Siam Square Sky Train Station in the background.

While Nuch prayed and made merit, I took a tour of the temple grounds.

I was warned not to play or make fun of the elephant and chicken statues, as they possess some kind of power - and little or no sense of humor.



I think Nuch had some fish that she wanted to donate to the monks, so while we waited to make our donation, this cat came over to make our acquaintance.



Here's Nuch praying that we, our family and our friends are healthy and happy; that the farmers will get rain for their crops and that it will stop raining in Bangkok, so I don't have to drive through a flood to get to work. Finally, she'll pray that the Buddha will grant us good fortune, so we can visit the department stores looming over us and stock up on worldly possessions.

Beauty Meets Brawn - Miss Thailand World 2009

Here's something you don't see everyday...

The winner of a national beauty contest,



and member of the National Tae Kwon Do team...



all in the same body.

Miss Pongchanok Ganglap has apparently pulled it off by winning the Miss Thailand World competition where she will represent Thailand in the Miss World pageant next year. Later this year, she will also represent Thailand at the SEA Games (like the Southeast Asian Olympics).


Here are some other pics.

Cooties

One of life's simple pleasures used to be getting a foot massage on the beach. Not any more.

On our recent trip, I got a foot massage (that turned out to be mostly a calf massage) from an old lady, as Nuch and I lounged in our beach chairs. Something must not have been kosher because a few days later my calves broke out in blistering, puss-filled infections.



BTW, this was after 2 days. It got much worse for another 3 days before it starting getting better. You can thank me later for not posting the picture.

Eureka!!!

While at the beach this past weekend, I made a startling discovery.

I've been reading a book about the history of astronomy, and the first couple chapters were about Copernicus and Galileo and their discovery that the world is round. Proof of this was demonstrated by the fact that a ship coming towards shore appears tip of the mast first, then the sail, and finally, the hull. The book then makes the point that if the world were flat, the ship would first appear as an indistinct spot and slowly appear in more and more details.


Anyway, with that in mind I realized that the clouds that I saw along the horizon were not hovering just above the water. In fact, what I was seeing was only the tops of clouds with the bottom floating below the horizon. So, it's true - the world is round!!!

Mantra

Here are some pictures from the Sunday Brunch at the Amari Pattaya's restaurant, Mantra. The food, wine, and decor were all first-class, although I'd still have to rank it a close second behind the Brunch at Trader Vic's.

However, the scallops left a lasting impression.

They looked like inflated marshmallows, and were incredibly rich. Unfortunately, after two bites we were full...

The decor was unique, as well, with a gothic-oriental theme.

Here are some pictures from Mantra's website.

This party table is called the Opium Den.

Holiday At The Holiday Inn

Nuch and I had a rare chance when we were both in town for the full weekend, so we took a two day trip to one of the resort beach towns outside of Bangkok. A new Holiday Inn had just opened, so stayed there and enjoyed their introductory rate.

Here's a picture of the room from the hotel website.



and the view from our room in the day...



and at night.


Here's a picture of the infinity pool.

and a view of the 10+ parasails scooting around the bay.

During the day we hung out at the beach, although the beach here is not nearly as nice as the beaches in Southern Thailand.

Here we are on the hotel balcony.

Finally, when at the beach in Thailand - you eat seafood for breakfast lunch and dinner.