bAngkok. when you first set your eyes on the city skyline, you'll see buildings sprouting out from the dirty streets and congested highways. traffic is a killer, and you wouldn't want to be so close to the road anyway, as it's really smogged. but overall, despite the grime and dirt, it's a pretty interesting place.
accoModAtion. originally, my mom planned for us to stay at the pathumwan princess hotel, you know, jointly connected to MBK, but we ended up at the asia hotel, dubbed as the 'singaporean residence' due to the vast amounts of singaporeans staying there. yea, didnt stay at p. princess, because we needed two rooms, and my mom only managed to get one, so we moved to asia. anyhow, asia was 10 times more convenient as the skytrain station was connected to the hotel via a linkway on the 2nd floor. excellent. oh, the hotel was really really cozy,my bro and i shared a room, whilst my bratty sister bunked in with my parents. hahaha, bro and i had a ball of a time, playing with our new stuff that we bought every night, eating dunkin' donuts, ordering room service, playing air guitars and rocking away to mtv. ahahhaa. insane. good location, i really wanna go back there.
fOod. before leaving for thailand, i was dubious about my survival there. it was the and of tom yum and chilli padis. my mother's haven. she's the chilli queen, dousing all her food with the burning fruit. oh well. they had more than tom yum there. good thing is, my parents knew about fantastic locations to get great local delights, delicious hawker food, all the best eatables available. weird dish we had there? ok, not exotic at all, but it was definitely generous in portion. fried rice with crabmeat. crabs! there was more crabmeat than fried egg in the concoction. yummy. even managed to sample their local fastfood there. yum. i was like totally intrigued with it. and macdonalds? whoa, impressive, S$7++ for a meal for 3 of us, yea, my stupid sister insisted on having macs for supper one night. you know, i imagined with all the running around we had to do in bangkok, that i would be able to lose some weight, but NO way! hahaha. think i put on 10 times more. heck, i look at myself now, and am able to see the roundness develop in hippopotamus.
h0m0SeXual centRaL. i'm serious. really, bangkok is the hub, make it international destination for GLBT. and we were 'fortunate' to arrive at the appropriate timing. yes, the 2nd night of our stay(or was it 3rd?) we went to silom road area, and were caught in the middle of the national gay parade. it was a less gaudy mardi gras. actually, it was like a normal parade of normal people, just thta guys held hands, and girls made-out with each other. and well, trannies, you couldnt tell if the people were guys or girls. not only because of the parade, but i think thailand should be renamed 'gayland'. the guys look like girls, the girls(butch) look like guys, and well, it just a public diplay of homosexual affection. even the ang mohs that were there could openly exercise their homosexual rights there. high society rich thais were homosexual, and even those in the chatuchak market were as well. interesting. and it is true. the trannies are definitely more beautiful than the real ladies. how would i know? my parents took my bro and i to the cabaret show in our hotel, calypso cabaret, with real women. and they also brought us to the little clubs along silom road, with the 'ladies'. omg. riveting. rivetingly gross. for one, i dont watch porn, the closest thing i watch to porn is wadever they show on tv. so this was an eye opener. these performers flexing their tight assses, prancing around, twirling around the poles, dancing. omg. i was just stupefied. well, i guess you would need to be there and see these kinda things for urself, no use describing. and yes, i do have madd parents.
sHoppinG. wow. that's all i can say. i shopped quite alot. as usual, i will buy useless pretty stuff, but i got clothes and what-nots as well. im only angry with the fact that my brother bought 3 pairs of shoes, wheni wanted to buy 2 of those pairs for myself. wad an ass. i ended up with no new shoes and no new sweater because he just snapped them out from under me. fucker. but my momma promised to give me ka-ching to get a sweater from back home. yeppers. as long as this jacket/sweater is below $100 she'll give in. yay! oooh, and i bought panties, yay! tons of colourful panties. my dream come true. ahahaha. yes, i was sad when mom threw away my coloured undies a couple of years back, but now they've been replaced ten-fold. pun intended. ooh, my mom bought back so much sotong thingys and these delish rice cracker thingys that filled up an entire luggage bag. as in, huge luggage bag,hard-cased, heavy crap. haha. loved the shopping, need to go back there, especially to chatuchak(the weekend market) to satisfy all my buying needs. oh yea, read the newspapers they provided and read an article on the king and his dog, and it tempted me to buy the book. it's a cartoon book on the lifestory of the king's favorite dog. i loved it. such an adorabl true story.
aNimaLs. how could you go to a country and not see any live ones? i managed to catch sightings of coutnless dogs, their held in high regard there, due to the fact that the king treats his with utmost respect as well. ok, brought the digicam with us, and finally i was trusted it. but alas! there was a big 'low batt' warning when i switched it on, and didnt manage to take any photos. trust my assholific bro to not charge it, and dang-it dad to not bring an extra batt or smthg. sheesh. anyhow, several store owners didnt allow photography. and trying to force myself from not buying any of the animals was the greatest temptation of all. my parents told me not to touch any of the animals, but being the disobedient kid, i touched virtually all the animals that i came across. saw puppies that were superbly adorable, they even had pitbull puppies. omg. so cute. bulldog!!!!lovethose. and a litter of fuzzy golden retreiver puppies. one of them kept sticking it's paw out,allowing me to shake it. then came the rodents. bunnies,hamsters,guinea pigs. their cuteness is personified by the environment they were in. like a fenced-in pen. oh! and there were squirrels, which seemed to be pretty common among the locales. i managed to pat one of them, but most were a tad restless. and i felt pity for them as they were seated above their cage, with tiny handcuffs locking their leg to the cage top. saddening. as i moved deeper into the pet section of chatuchak, i came across exotic animals. several water snakes,pythons, boa constrictors. there were gibbons and marmosets, several other primate species. birds, tons of birds, i dont really know the breeds, but i saw a cage full of young vultures. it was jsut so intrigueing. and cruel. i didnt get the chance to venture further to see even more animals, maybe even wild ones like tigers and the likes. you know, i vowed that when i go back there again, i wanna visit the wildaid centre, where they strategise wildlife conservation and the eradication of poaching in the region. i saw this on animal planet, and it was also mentioned on NGC.
cHurch. yes. sorry for this add-in, but i forgot about it. my overly pious father insisted that we go to church. and we had a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. hah. the earlier mass was in thai, the later one in korean. what would you pick? me - neither. but we ended up going for the earlier one in thai, despite my protests that it would be a waste of precious time, that i wanted to eat more breakfast or any other reasons i could come up with to avoid god in thailand. ahah. but it was an experience. the priests were german, and a couple of polish chaps. all really old, but friendly, and they spoke english, as well as thai. funny thing is, they spoke english with a thick polish or german accent, but when they conducted mass in thai, if u closed your eyes and listened, they had perfect diction, sounding like a native. ooooh, the church was non-aircon but it was wondrous. st john bosco stained glass was depicted on the high-ceilinged walls, the stained glass was the olden type, not the gross bland new ones we see nowadays(like the one in my church). it was intricately done, and i was just in awe of it, spending the entire time just gazing at one panel after another. the church could sit about a thousand people, but only a mere 200 were there, and about 10% were foreigners. really nice place, glad my dad pushed us to go. shall see church in a different light from now on, oh, there was an ancient lady sitting on the opposite pew who was reading a mandarin bible, but she seemed to understand thai, i was confused by this predicament.
lanGuage baRrier. yeps, most definitely a critical factor. i cant believed i looked that over as well, think i was too tired last nite. shall just add it in here. apparently, tons of thais mistook me for a thai as well, and they spoke to me in their native language. all i could do was either smile, nod, say 'huh?', or go 'english please'. but one thing did work to my advantage, they gave me cheaper rates at the bargain areas. maybe i should just learn a little thai before my next trip back there. seriously, they seemed to be disbelived that i was a foreigner. well, if i really was thai, i must be the fattest one there, coz i swear, no matter how fattening their food was, they're all skinny binnys. true, next time take a good look for yourself.
aiRplane. the ride home was the most turbulent i have ever experienced.
ok, enough about bangkok. the day i left, i had gone to the spca earlier on with steph and alvin. had a great time there, getting trapped in the cattery, clawed by some kittens, nibbled by several dogs, and scratched by one in particular. now this festering wound(ok, im exaggerating, but it was bloody) is a yellow crust. gross.
oh, and this. fuck it. im stuck with perl programming. wtf lar. i dont even know how to use visual basic, and im stuck with perl? all u bastards out there who got excel, fuck your mothers' chee byes! i dont even know how to use excel, so cant u at least give me a chance! cheebye. fuckit. stupid holiday prevented me from accessing a computer at my time of enrolment. so cheesed off by this IS shites. oh, and ive decided not to change my timetable. so i will be scheduled to take acmb next sem, and skip my elective. sad but true. oh well. maybe it might allow me to graduate on time, or go for attachment as well. but i'll only be sharing one class with my original class. heck lar. damnit. anyhow, guess seeing such a jumbled timetable might just work out for me. i now have more time to enrol for driving lessons, and also have a lot of 'alone' time in school, which might make for a good study session, if organized properly. ahha. ok, getting woozie, lack of sleep, and exhausted from holidaying. sounds insane? but it's factual.