Tag: Bangkok

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Misc.

Thanksgiving in Bangkok

A and our friends Ploy, Dan, and Beau headed to Bangkok’s Great American Rib Company last night to celebrate Turkey Day with ample and tasty portions of turkey, gravy, stuffing, potato salad, coleslaw, pumpkin pie, and even jalapeno cornbread. All that I found lacking was a Lay-Z-Boy on which to recline post-meal and dream about turkey sandwiches to come and going back for seconds of my Aunt Cee Cee’s world famous pecan pie.

Round one

The food was savory and the company was great, but the highlight of the evening came when Dan and Ploy hopped on a motosai taxi and headed off precariously into the warm night. Notice the look on the taxi driver’s face: what the hell is happening here and why is that big farang taking our picture?

Bangkok Sunrise

I happened to be up early a few days ago — we’re talking pre-dawn, a time of day during which I am most certainly not at my best. But I managed to snap some pics of the sunrise from my roof deck. (The one at my house, it should be noted, is a reasonable four floor floors up, not a vertiginous sixty four.)

Moon Over Bangkok
The moon.

Sunrise Over Bangkok
The gloaming.

Moon Over Bangkok
The moon again.

Bangkok’s Most Extreme Rooftop Restaurant

That’s the subject of my most recent Gridskipper post. And here’re some additional pics of Sirocco, a rooftop restaurant perched 64 stories above Bangkok — and with little more than a glass railing separating patrons from the sheer drop.

Prime Minister Surayud Addresses the Foreign Press

Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont

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.

Thai Coup: Six Weeks In

Thailand Coup: CNN International -- Soldier with Yellow King Flag

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.)

Categories
Misc.

Rambo in Thailand — Update

New Mandala:

It was only a matter of time before more stories about the planned filming of Rambo IV: In The Serpent’s Eye started seeping out. This action flick is slated to be “shot” in a Thai national park in the far north over the coming dry season. The global media just gorges on this kind of story and, well, why not?

According to a Sydney Morning Herald report headlined “No violence please, we’re Thais“, director of the Thailand Film Office, Wanasiri Morakul, has said:

We have warned them that any violence has to be reasonable because we care about young people.

In another report, this time by the Associated Press via WTOP, Wanasiri continues:

Some scenes might be a little bit violent, so we asked them not to make it too violent because if we say that the ethnic minorities are violent, it might be inappropriate.

According to the reports, in this fourth installment of the Rambo franchise the title character has retired to Bangkok. Rather than haunting the bars, or running a gem racket, Rambo is, according to the plot leaks, working as a military boat repairer in the “City of Angels”. I guess they needed some reasonable justification for putting him in Thailand. In so many ways, though, being a boat repairer is pretty far-fetched. Why couldn’t they play it safe? Couldn’t they make him a sports instructor at ISB? An English teacher at ECC? Or a restaurant owner down Sukhumwit way? Those are the sorts of things that the average retired American soldier ends up doing in Thailand.

But I digress, Rambo isn’t average. It shouldn’t need repeating – we all accept that realism isn’t the strong point of this remarkable cinematic franchise.

(Emphasis mine.)

Related: Rambo: Coming to Bangkok (and Burma)

Categories
Misc.

Dinner with Claire and Frans

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Last night A and I had the pleasure of meeting up with Claire and Frans [their Flickr site; Frans’s site], my good friends since college. They’re in Bangkok for a few days on their way to Bhutan. (Yes, I am utterly roiling with jealousy that they’re going there).

We ate at Baan Khanitha; if you ask me, the highlight of our meal was the yam som o — spicy pomelo salad with shrimp and chicken. Our other dishes — a yellow chicken curry, a steamed whole fish, and more — were also tasty. For dessert, the mango with sticky rice, while perhaps not as sublime as my favorite khao niaow ma muang joint on soi Thong Lor, was also quite succulent.

Safe travels, Claire and Frans, and thanks for paying ole uncle Newley a visit in Krungthep.

Categories
Misc.

Suvarnabhumi Airport

Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok (opened today)

Bangkok’s brand-new airport. That’s the subject of my latest Gridskipper post.

Spotted in Bangkok

Spotted in Bangkok: How to Carry a Bucket and Drive a Motorbike at the Same Time

How to carry a bucket and drive a motorbike at the same time. Awesome.

Truth in Labeling — and Being Big Outside America

Truth in Labeling

The tag says it all:

“ASIAN SIZE XL.”

I bought this pair of shorts here in Bangkok recently. If you’re a large person like me and you’ve ever tried to buy clothing in Asia, you’ll appreciate the fact that Adidas has seen fit to label these bad boys honestly. An XL in Asia is perhaps an M in America.

Related photos of me being large and in charge in the far east and elsewhere outside of North America:

With Some Folks Who Approached me in Jakarta
Looking silly in Jakarta.

At Gin-Long's Restaurant
With Mammoth and Dong and the Gin Long Crew in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (somewhat embarrasingly, I’m wearing the same tee in this pic — but hey, I was on a long trip).

Me and a Small Opel
Next to a microscopic Opel in Ireland circa 2002.

big_np_little_chair
Standing next to a chair in the north of Vietnam

With a food vendor atop the Nariz del Diablo train
With a food vendor in central Ecuador

With some girls in Quito
And with a gaggle of girls in Quito.