It's A Bird, It's A Plane...

It's Tim Tebow!!!

This is not Thailand related, but I did spend the early hours of Sunday morning listening to Tim Tebow play his last home game.

By the way, I never have understood the advantage of the Jump Pass, aside from cool photo ops that make Tebow look like he is flying.

Cleanliness Is Next To Buddhaness

The other day, Nuch and I joined her brother and his girlfriend to make merit at their local temple. This time it was to remember her father who passed away a year ago.

Here's Nuch's brother and the head monk.



Nuch and her brother's girlfriend donating gift baskets to the temple monks.

Apparently, there's at least one thing that Buddhism and Christianity have in common, as these monks and, I imagine, most others must be sparkling clean with all the soap, towels, and toilet paper they receive on a daily basis.

Karma Works In Mysterious Ways

Last Sunday, I was in between business trips and had just 24 hours in Bangkok before I was on the road again. I had planned to veg out and catch up on some serious couch time, as well as watch replays of Gator games via the Internet.

Wishful thinking...

Somehow, I was cajoled into going with Nuch on some errands, which should have taken little more than an hour - a small sacrifice, I though, as a dutiful husband. Little did I know that she had planned a side trip to a Chinese temple, so we could get our Karma Credits in order before the new year. Usually, I'm a pretty good sport about these kind of things and will tag along for the cultural experience, but when I only had one day of "me" time, I did what any other grown man would do - I went along and pouted the entire time.

I also took some pictures. This is the main temple where you can see the golden idols in the background and monks praying along either side.

This part was interesting. For some reason, we had to buy lucky oil and pour it into the special basin to ensure that the magic candle would burn forever. You can see the lady's arm pouring it in the middle of the picture.

It may look like a magic candle, but it's really a magic piggy bank. As the oil is poured in, it overflows, goes down the plastic tube, and into the metal bin, where it is recycled and sold again. Why didn't I think of that.

The candles aren't much different, as the melted wax is collected, re-molded, and re-sold.

Needless to say, I was a poor sport and brewed internally at this colossal waste of time. Which begs the question, was my negative Karmic energy to blame for the Nuch getting her car booted for parking illegally, while we were at the temple?

I say illegally, but we parked in front of a parking meter sign, but there was no one there to take our money. When the policeman came to unboot Nuch's car, we asked him about the sign. As he took our money, he told us, "there's a No Parking sing behind the tree, and someone needs to take that sign down."

Pulai Springs Resort

This is more like it.

After 2 weeks in frigid China, I've spent the last couple days in Jahor Bahru, Malaysia at the Pulai Springs Resort. Still working most of the time, but at least the scenery is better.

Siam 1939

This is a film taken by a lady who travelled around the world in 1939.

The first half shows Bangkok's major temples - not so interesting, as they look pretty much the same as they do today.

The second half of the video, however, shows Bangkok's canals and water markets, which are now mostly covered by streets.

2 Weeks In China

You may have noticed a lack of blog posts over the last 2 weeks. There are 2 reasons for that:

- The Chinese government has blocked the http://www.blogspot.com/ website

and

- For two weeks, I did nothing except look at furniture, listen to a broken player piano, and when I had spare time, stare out at Haining's gloomy landscape from a factory window.

This is the view from the factor's second floor window.


This was the player piano at the hotel restaurant where I ate breakfast and dinner every day for two weeks. Whoever programmed it must have been missing a finger.


Finally, some pictures of our products coming out of China.

BNE Was Here - Narathiwas 24

First, what is BNE - a graffiti artist or a vandal? The mayor of San Francisco has a $2,500 bounty on his head.

Second, who is BNE? Nobody seems to know, but he is everywhere.

Along with nearly every major street in downtown Bangkok, the BNE graffiti has appeared in other cities around the world - Tokyo, New York, Melbourne, and San Francisco where it was first spotted in 2005.

Not wanting to be left out, I was proud to discover that my own street, Narathiwas Soi 24, has also been touched by the infamous BNE, whoever you are.

Sweet Corn Tooth

Last week, Nuch and I tried a new restaurant that, along with hot pot and sushi, had an ice cream buffet. At the end of our meal, Nuch brought me a bowl of ice cream, and to my horror it was mixed with a little salad.

You see, corn is considered a sweet in Thailand, and besides that, the yellow corn looks pretty on top of the vanilla and chocolate.

Reincarnation

Thai temples are sanctuaries for many things - stray dogs, ghosts, men or women who want to find the "middle way". Reincarnation

The temple near Nuch's home is also a sanctuary for old cars, looking for a 2nd chance on life.

The sign on the window says: We buy old cars for "high" prices

View Of Nothing

These were taken the other morning from our balcony. I still argue that we have the best view of nothing in Bangkok.

Kids And Boats

Kids are like boats - if you don't have one, it's good to have a friend that does - especially, on Halloween.

Last week, Carl invited me over to his house to help hand out candy. Here's a picture of his daughter, Emily, who dressed up like Curious George. Carl is the "Man with a Yellow Hat".


Here is Carl and his neigbors, who have their own tuk-tuk that they decked out for trick or treating.


While Carl went around the neighborhood with Emily, I sat out front with his dad and handed out candy. Here are some of the other costumes.

This last picture was taken at a department store in downtown Bangkok. It always amazes me how much the Thais get into Western holidays. Any reason to have a party.

Maximalism

The other day, I was taking care of some visa issues at the new government office complex North of Bangkok.

When I was done, I went looking for the food garden and stumbled upon this massive atrium, which was big enough to hold a couple football fields.


For a moment, it took my breath away, as if I had wandered up to the edge of the Grand Canyon without knowing it was there.

But just as quickly, I wondered why, in one of the hottest cities on earth, would you purposely air condition a space that has no purpose.

"Big" seems to be a trend in Thailand, as I'll show in a future post on their recent mega-bridge projects. I can only assume that Thailand is trying to emulate China that seems to have the biggest and tallest of everything. More likely, some big Thai politicians have a few construction and cement companies.