I tell you, Bangkok is a housewife’s heaven! I hung my bed sheet on my balcony to dry, and not less than an hour later, it had fallen off onto the street (not ideal) and my next door neighbour delivered it to my door. It was bone dry! No waiting for laundry to dry here I tell you, the heat simply bakes laundry dry. There has to be some upside to sweating like a hooded rapist in a marathon all day! 
Monthly Archive for March, 2006
I just had a FedEx delivery from home and it was fantastic! Check this out, the dude arrived on a motorbike…
DHL delivered a package a few weeks ago and it was a nightmare. They didn’t deliver it on the first day, then I checked the tracking number online, they said they needed address confirmation. So I gave them the same address as on the package, then they called the next day, the driver only spoke Thai, and eventually I gave the phone to someone who gave them directions.
FedEx on the other hand, I got a call this morning from a very helpful gentleman who spoke excellent English to say he was round the corner and couldn’t find the apartment (addresses in Bangkok are a nightmare to put it mildly!) so I explained how to get here, he arrived a few minutes later on his motorbike, I paid the customs duty (goddamit!) and boom, transaction complete. Fantastic!
If you’re sending me anything, be sure to use FedEx and not DHL…
There are protests tonight in Bangkok against president Thaksin (new window). I saw some roads closed and a few small groups of protestors today as I was heading to various meetings. I heard the sound of protesting outside my window and was slightly perplexed as to why there would be mass protesting in this quiet little corner of Bangkok.
No need to worry, a little investigation reveals that my neighbours across the road appear to be deaf, and so their TV is making as much noise as the protest they’re obviously watching!
It’s interesting to ask the Thais and local farangs (ex pats) about their views on the current political situation in Thailand. Everyone accepts Thaksin is corrupt, but nobody seems to have a clear solution or prediction of what will actually happen in the upcoming elections. Thais simply say they don’t know, most don’t know who they’ll vote for. Farrangs question who is there to replace Thaksin.
I can’t help but feel that when you get stopped by the police in Bangkok and give them 200 baht to dissolve whatever problem you apparently had, corruption in the government is the least of Thailand’s political problems. However, apparently a large body of people feel that Thaksin is the problem, and they’re telling him, rather loudly, to get out of Thailand and go to Singapore!
We’ll wait and see how it all develops. As always, you can rely on me to bring you front line reports!
It’s terrible, I find myself craving McDonald’s in Asia more so than I ever did at home. I probably ate (if you can call it that) at McDonald’s less than once a year for the last 5 years at home and yet I’ve no doubt doubled that at least since being in Asia.
I wonder if it’s because the food (again, I use that word cautiously) is predictable and western. There’s only so much fried rice with chicken one man can eat if you weren’t raised on the stuff. I find myself craving the predictability of McDonalds. Arrrggggghhhhhhh…
Not only can you install Linux on your iPod, ooh how exciting, but you can also run a complete Linux Operating System from a CD or DVD. That means you can start your computer into Linux, check how it runs, see if you like it, then simply restart the computer, take out the CD, and Windows (or your original operating system) remains untouched.
One such example of Linux is called Knoppix (new window) and there’s even a version of it called Games Knoppix (new window) which has hundreds of games included on the DVD.
Both of these can be downloaded for free, or you can order a pre-burned DVDs to save you the time and hassle for around $15 USD. You gotta love Linux…
We ate at a fantastic restaurant last night in Singapore’s Little India. It’s called Banana Leaf, and they serve your food on a banana leaf instead of a plate! It’s great, you get your rice served right onto the leaf, then slap the dishes on top.
Great meal for my last night in Singapore, a big thanks to Ferg (new window) his hospitality.
Just back from seeing The Pink Panther (new window) now that I’m in back in sunny Bangkok (it really was much sunnier than Singapore when I got back!).
It was absolutely hilarious. I felt a little for the Thais because there are a whole heap of jokes that you just won’t get unless you really understand English. There’s a hilarious line about 006 being one away from the big guy, and all sorts of other hilarity. I was expecting it to be rubbish, painfully bad, but it really was funny.
Jason Statham, Steve Martin, Jean Reno, even Beyonce rocks up. It’s an all star cast of hilary, top marks from me!
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