Newley Purnell

How the mighty have fallen.

The Nation newspaper ran some photos yesterday of Thailand’s ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra strolling about London all by his lonesome. (He’s currently in exile there after being deposed in the military coup.)

The images seems to convey that Thaksin feels bummed, like, “I’m so lonely here in the UK and I feel so left out.” Also, don’t miss the taunting prose that the Nation ran along with the pics.

(As an aside: I don’t mean to compare Thaksin to Lil’Kim, but I can’t help but draw a parallel between these stark photos and the latter’s famous “I’m so ronery” ballad…)

Last night A and I attended Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont’s first major address to the foreign press since he took office following the September 19 military coup. In a wide-ranging speech followed by a question and answer session, the PM and his cabinet members outlined their plans for holding new elections — and touched on a host of other issues.

The photo above — and I apologize for its poor quality — is of PM Surayud seated on the dais. (Click on the image for a bigger version.)

The IHT’s Tom Fuller has some analysis of the PM’s remarks (notably Surayud’s proclamation that Shariah law could be imposed in the restive south), while The Nation’s also got some details regarding the evening.

In my latest Gridskipper dispatch, I interview the creator of a new documentary about long-term travel and provide my thoughts on the film.

It’s Loy Krathong time here in Thailand. From the Wikipedia page:

Loy Krathong is a festival celebrated in Thailand. It is held on the third lunar moon in November.

“Loi” means “to float”. “Krathong” is a lotus-shaped boat usually decorated with banana leaves, flowers, candles, coins, incense sticks etc.

The festival originated in Thailand to ask for the Mother of Water’s forgiveness for polluting the water.

The Thai tradition of Loy Kratong started off in Sukhothai, but is now celebrated throughout Thailand, with the festivities in Chiang Mai and Ayutthaya being particularly well known.

ThailandLife.com has more info, and you can see some more pics on Flickr.

I’ve witnesssed some folks carrying around krathongs, and I’ve heard firecrackers resounding throughout the city at night, but I haven’t seen anyone actually launching the vessels.

[Image: tom_p]

I’m not even slightly a cat person, but since it’s Friday, here’s a special gift: funny cat pics, many of which belong to the Cute Overload oeuvre (though I prefer its counterpart, Ugly Overload). Sadly, there is no Tubcat in this amusing feline gallery. (Side note: My favorite animal site on the Intarweb is and always will be Sperel the Goose.)

(Via.)

Seth Mydans had a good story in yesterday’s IHT:

It was a smiling coup for the Land of Smiles, quick, neat, bloodless and broadly popular among the citizens of Bangkok. For several days, the tanks in the streets were a sort of petting zoo as families brought their children to climb onto the big, friendly machines.

Now, six weeks later, the tanks are gone, the mess of politics has reasserted itself and the generals are fumbling a bit with their new image as managers. People have begun to complain that these fix-it men have not yet produced what one foreign political analyst called “instant democracy.”

(Emphasis mine.)

Guinea pigs: they’re not from Guinea and they’re not pigs.

Discuss.

But seriously:

The CSM’s Chip Mitchell:

Guinea pig: It’s what’s for dinner in Peru - and the US: Farmers in Peru boost their income by exporting guinea pigs to immigrants in the US.

I tried this special dish on a couple of occasions when I lived in Ecuador — the Spanish word is cuy (pronounced coo-ee). Doesn’t taste like chicken. Tough. A bit oily. But maybe my own particular issue was that as I munched on those tiny drumsticks I couldn’t help but picture Betty, my late, great, beloved pet, whose lustrous coat I used to groom lovingly with an old toothbrush when I was but six years old….

Previously: Ecuadorian Soup in The New Yorker.

For what it’s worth, in the photo above, that’s not, in fact, cuy I was cooking with my Ecuador friends Mike F. and Angelica last year…

Travel writer Rolf Potts has concluded his Busan, Korea homecoming with two more excellent dispatches over at Slate: “Fishing Indoors With a Former Member of the Korean Army” and “A Quest for the Musical Russian Triplets of Texas Street.”

Previously: Three Korea Stories of Note.