pittsburgh flooding

whereas bangkokians are used to flooding, it's not such a frequent occurance back in my hometown of pittsburgh. my sister sent me a link to some of the photos here showing the recent flooding in pittsburgh after the remnants of hurricane ivan passed through. a whopping 30,000 homes were damaged in pennsylvania after the storm passed through, with pittsburgh's allegheny county accounting for a full third of the total.

here you can see the park downtown, called 'the point', completely underwater. the photo at top shows the point as it normally looks like.

a good shot showing how deep the flooding was- the water is not far off signs above a roadway which itself is usually well above the waterline.


a lot of boats broke free of their moorings and drifted downriver as the water levels rose . this boat is stranded on an offramp.

amazing shot of about a dozen boats, attached to their marina, all drifting together down the river.

ps- it seems like my posts lately are all about nature. any amateur psychologists out there wanna give this a shot??

reincarnation

who were you in a past life? find the answer here.

i apparently was a an evil french male banker born in the year 950. i lived a bohemian lifestyle and was very much into books and 'mysterious forces'.

night turns into day

a storm passed through bangkok earlier this evening. was quite the light show but sukhumvit was spared of most of the rain. this view looks south-east from sukhumvit with lake ratchada and asoke road in the center. although it looks at first glance like lightning struck the dark-colored lake ratchada tower building, the strike was actually behind the building and to the right- just visible in the photo.

you can see a full-size (2600x1950) version by clicking on the thumbnail or here (920k).

another bangkok earthquake, part 2

dr. pennung wrote back to an email i sent him alerting him to the earthquake that happened on the day of his lecture last friday. he sent me a paper that he recently presented at the 13th world conference on earthquake engineering in vancouver, canada.

i wish dr pennung the best of luck in his quest to spread awareness among engineers and construction companies here in bangkok. considering that earlier this year over 3000 buildings were declared unsafe, it looks like he has a tough battle ahead.

here's an excerpt:

even though bangkok is located at a remote distance from seismic sources, a recent seismic hazard study shows that bangkok is still at risk from damaging ground motions induced by distant large earthquakes. the risk is primarily caused by the ability of thick soft surficial deposits in bangkok to amplify earthquake ground motions about 3 to 4 times

...

under some special circumstances, earthquake disasters can occur at distances from the source (epicentral region) much greater than those usually assumed, say 150 to 200km at the most. a well-known example is the 1985 michoacan earthquake, where a large magnitude earthquake (m=8.1) on the [coast of] mexico caused considerable destruction and loss of life in mexico city located 350km from the epicentral location.

you can read the rest of his interesting paper here (1.5mb).

another bangkok earthquake!

some of you may remember a few months ago i blogged about the rather strong earthquake that was felt here in bangkok almost exactly a year ago.

last friday i was sitting at my office computer writing some end-of-the day emails when suddenly there was a loud creak from the building and i felt movement. the aircon had just switched on so at first i thought that might be it, but then i felt a sway similar to an earthquake. my blinds and door were moving back and forth slightly but i thought perhaps it too was the aircon. after 10 seconds or so i walked over to ask one of my office staff if she had felt anything- she hadn't, so i returned to my desk thinking perhaps i was just dizzy from being at the keyboard too long.

i remembered a few moments ago what happened and checked out the usgs website. was amazed to find that there in fact was an earthquake during that time. unlike last year's bigger earthquake i couldn't find any references to the quake online aside from the usgs report. what i did find was that a talk entitled, 'earthquake disaster in bangkok, can it be true?' was scheduled for last friday at the asian institute of technology. bit of a coincidence that an earthquake would be felt in bangkok the same day, eh!

doing a bit more searching i found an interesting paper written in part by the speaker of the talk, k. pennung warnitchai, which describes a seismic hazard assessment conducted on bangkok. the conclusion is that although bangkok in not danger of an earthquake happening nearby, a very strong earthquake a few hundred kilometers away could cause a great deal of destruction here in bangkok, similar to the mexico city earthquake of 1985.

would be curious to know k. pennung's thoughts, but i'd venture a guess that construction standards in regards to seismic capability aren't stellar here in bangkok. if cracks appear in major new buildings from a moderate earthquake hundreds of miles away, what would happen if there was a massive quake closer?

on a related topic, i found a report describing 'durability issues' with bangkok's buildings which contains some nice photos of shoddy construction found in bangkok and nearby. a friend who lives in my building heard a loud noise one morning- he looked outside and saw that a large slab of concrete had fallen off a building on soi 10 and crashed through the roof of a house below. the building on soi 10 is covered in cracks- could be one of those durability issues mentioned in the paper.

concerts in thailand

thailand gets some big tours coming through every now and then- i saw linkin park in june (more pics here) and the red hot chili peppers last year. seems that queuing up for tickets isn't a big thing here, so if you buy your tickets on the morning of the first day you can get great seats.

thaiticketmaster.com takes care of ticketing for most major concerts and they have outlets in bangkok, like in central chitlom, where you can go to buy the tickets. their website shows upcoming concerts like the eagles (yawn) and blue (nooooooo!!!!).

for local music thaipoppers.com lists concerts and gigs by thai bands like blackhead and silly fools. for most of the smaller places tickets aren't needed but get there early as the places often get really really packed.

in other news, i read that mcdonalds in france is being promoted by the olsen twins. maybe i'm a bit sensitive to these kinds of things after watching super size me, but one of the twins was just treated for anorexia. not sure she's the best spokesperson to be promoting big macs!

godfather horsehead pillow

the ultimate gag gift- 'dad, are you suuuure you don't want to buy me a car?'

english lesson

workbook from one of japan's less reputable english schools.

gmail notifier

as with most gmail stuff, new features and accessories seem to be spread more by word of mouth (or text) than any other method. i've just stumbled across gmail notifier, a handy little tool that runs in the system tray and checks your gmail account for new messages.

i've got a few invites to give away, so if you don't have an account and want one then leave a comment here with your email address and i'll send you an invitation. otherwise i'll pass them to the highest bidder (unfortunately, not too high these days) at gmailswap. methinks the demand for gmail betas is reaching the saturation point.

bits and pieces

i've added a couple of blogs to the thailand list, terry's trek and ernest's whirrled. both are teachers here, ernest with a regularly updated blog on a lot of topics and terry with some great travel photos including this one of two johnny and luther wannabes.

what ever happened to the real johnny and luther? all went quiet after they turned themselves in and held a press conference saying their fighting days were over. a little google research reveals that they were to be sent to the united states as refugees but wound up refusing to go, because they were afraid to live in america after 9/11 and didn't want to leave their friends and family. so now they're presumably still living in the refugee camp in ratchaburi. probably the best thing, really, as i can't imagine johnny and luther playing little league and attending sunday school.

a few hours ago ruebens barrichello won the monza grand prix. formula one this year has again been dominated by schumacher and ferrari- i have to imagine that ecclestone will make some changes to make the sport less lopsided in the future, otherwise formula one won't be earning too many new fans.

there was a huge blast in north korea a few days ago that coincided with the country's 56th anniversary. a large mushroom cloud was detected by satellite, leading many people to speculate that the country had conducted a nuclear test. now the theory is an accident of some kind as there was no seismic disturbance which is apparently supposed to accompany a test. my guess would be a missile launch gone bad, as north korea seems to take great delight in sending missiles over japan and recently tested a missile engine that could reach north america.

where has the weekend gone? it absolutely flew past and i didn't finish all the errands i needed to do. seems like time is flying... we're rapidly approaching the end of 2004 and then we'll be halfway through the decade.

shutter

saw the thai movie shutter tonight at major cineplex central world plaza (aka world trade). the story revolves around a photographer and his girlfriend who hit a pedestrian late one night as they're driving. they flee the scene and later strange faces and shapes begin to appear on the photographer's snapshots. the story follows their investigation into the photos and the identity of the girl they hit.

as with any horror movie there are the usual 'don't open that door!' and 'why don't you run away??' frustrations, and being a thai ghost movie there are the requisite sudden ghost appearances, extra-long limbs, and vomiting. overall, the movie does a good job of building suspense but often resorts to cheap shots to get a scare, like suddenly flashing a picture of something nasty along with a loud noise. the number of dream sequences gets confusing as it gets difficult to know if the characters are awake and there are one or two scenes (like in the men's room) that aren't in synch with the rest of the movie.

i'm not a fan of horror as a genre but i found shutter to be at least tolerable, a good date flic. i recall liking nang nak a lot more- though it might have been the novelty of seeing my first thai ghost movie.

overall rating: 2/5 durians.

down with shaky cameras!

the other day i went to see the bourne supremacy. overall i thought the movie was excellent- with its locations all over the world and chases it was a throwback to cold war james bond movies. one thing that really bothered me, however, was the 'shaky camera' film technique that was used throughout the whole movie.

whereas home video cameras are sold with constantly improved video stabilization technology, for the past few years (ever since nypd blue) tv and movie directors have decided that a shaky camera is the way to get one's audience feeling like they're part of the action. actually the audience feels like they're about to puke.

in the beginning of the movie matt damon's character is in goya with his girlfriend. we see him talking with his girlfriend in a hut at night, a peaceful moment that's only disturbed by the screen weaving about like the cameraman has parkinson's syndrome. drunk with parkinson's syndrome. drunk with parkinson's syndrome riding a unicycle... during an earthquake. i was sitting fairly close to the screen and at that point i wondered if i was going to make it through the whole movie.

seems that i'm not alone as message boards are buzzing with threads on the shaky camerawork:
- shaky camera @ rottentomatoes.com
- if it is noticable...it isn't movie making @ imdb.com
- fuc the shaky camera bullshtt @ sohh.com

hopefully there will be a level of backlash against the shaky camera work found in so many programs these days. at the very least there should be a warning or disclaimer- had i watched the movie during a hangover it wouldn't have been a pretty sight.

blogging for baht

the good folks at blogspot have been promoting their (google's) adsense program which i took a look at the other day.

in a nutshell, adsense lets a web author add text advertisements to his or her site and pays when a reader sees something interesting and clicks on the ad. the googly part of this is that google scans the page and adds only relevent ads pertaining to the content. certainly an improvement over the old banner ad system which required a great deal of manual maintenance.

this page tells you what ads would show if a particular website participated in the adsense program. for example winterson.com would yield mostly ads for hotels in bangkok and around thailand- probably the most relevant topic, though not sure that my ramblings attract many people seeking hotel reservations.

this excellent article goes into more detail about adsense and gives some useful tips for creating a profitable website. i agree that the best way to make money is to establish a strong focus, so blogs that talk about durian one day and crashing space capsules the next probably will never amount to much. but there's no reason to believe that blogs that deal with specific topics can't attract a regular readership that could translate into some real money.

the implications are interesting. much of what's great about the internet is peoples' dedication to writing about what they know about, for free. whereas some larger more professional sites make money via advertising revenue the one-man hobby authors usually don't want to get involved in advertising- the trouble of doing so versus the potential return just doesn't make it attractive. with adsense (this is starting to sound like a commercial) after 15 minutes the ads can be set up and the author can start making money- perhaps just enough to cover the costs of running the site, but often more, and sometimes a lot more.

for folks living in developing countries around the world this could be a good opportunity. for example one might not work full time on a golf course website back home for $1000 a month, but here in thailand that's real money- enough for people to quit their jobs and do it full time. and if that's what their real passion was anyway, then everyone wins.

genesis crash

yesterday the nasa genesis probe came back to earth after having completed its 6-year mission of recovering solar particles. the method of recovery was supposed to be a mid-air helicopter snag of the capsule as even with a parachute scientists were afraid that a hard landing would damage the delicate contents inside. unfortunately the parachutes didn't deploy and the capsule crashed into the desert at a velocity of almost 200mph. it was damaged but scientists are saying that some of its payload may be recoverable, though this looks optimistic given the care they wanted to give the sample.

unfortunately it looks like the stardust mission that collected particles from a comet may face a similar fate when it returns in 2006 as it uses the same re-entry system as genesis.

nasa has had a fair amount of troubles in recent years, though the success of the rover missions made people forget a lot of the previous problems. i can't imagine that bush's manned mission to mars will ever be a reality in my lifetime given the complexity and dangers involved.

robomaid

i invariably get a load of spam mail every day, most of which i delete without opening. they typically are pre-approved (but not really pre-approved) mortgages, 'penile enhancement' products, porn, cons to try and get me to reveal my personal information, letters from my friends the abacha family in nigeria telling me about the death of another family member and informing me of my $1000000000 cut, and so on.

on occation i get some interesting spam. a few months back i received a spam mail from a company that advertises website maintenance software. nothing unusual about that, but the different approach was they had run a basic analysis of this site already and given me a list of broken/dead links for free. pretty cool- in fact i wrote to the guy and told him it was a cool approach and he wrote me back thanking me any suggesting i buy his software. was cool but not that cool, buddy!

this morning i received a spam mail with the intriguingly title of 'robomaid' which was enough for me to open it. i half expected to be tricked into a porn site or yet another pre-approved mortgage but instead i was presented with several broken photo links and a small video of a tiny ufo-like object scurrying around the floor of a deliriously happy homemaker.

not only did the robomaid clean the floor for but according to the animation in the video it kept track of its own progress so as to be certain the entire room was clean. intrigued as to how such a thing could be sold for only $20, i checked out the simple robomaid website which has the same video and a bit more info:

- robomaid is from europe (you can almost hear the tv studio audience, "oooohhhhhh... ahhhhhh!!!")
- robomaid picks up dust with electrostatic pads on the botom (ok, could work i suppose)
- robomaid 'changes directions automatically to keep working the entire floor surface' (umm... really????)

the latter claim i find very hard to believe. for it to be able to do this it'd have to be able to map out a room and track it's progress around the room to ensure it doesn't cover the same area and simply bounce around like a self-propelled billiard ball or take a plunge off the stairs. that's to say nothing of involuntary changes in direction due to collisions or the pet attacks.

i agree with a comment on the gadget blog- it looks like one of those squirrel balls that drive pets absolutely nuts. they wobble along until disturbed and then head off in a random direction.

of course if one of you have a spare $20 bill burning a hole in your pocket then perhaps you can conduct some first-hand research for us to find out if there's anything to robomaid, the senstation that's 'sweeping europe' (ho ho!!!!).

what's winterson?

what is winterson? well for starters it's my name and the name of this domain which i registered several years ago. although i registered the domain to give my family personalized email addresses i'm the only one still using one as apparently my family prefer such easy-to-remember addresses as nicoltr1999v2athome@aol.com.

after i taught myself some basic html i set up a simple page saying welcome to winterson.com, preserved for all eternity by the internet wayback archive. the page had a small link to write to me but the majority of mail would be spam. on occation i'd receive a mail asking what the website was about or mail from students asking about jeanette winterson. most recently this site has become a blog created with the idea of showing my friends and family around the world how life is different here, though i'm deviating a lot from this plan with my random ramblings.

jeanette winterson is no doubt the most famous winterson, taking up a full 80% of all google references to winterson if you include all the various spelling mutilations of the name 'jeanette'. per salon she is 'england's literary outlaw', a prizewinning lesbian novelist who is the source of the quote at the top of this page. i haven't read any of her books but would like to when i have some free time (ha!). jeanette was involved in a landmark domain name case against a squatter who was holding onto the domain jeanettewinterson.com among others. while most settled with the squatter, jeanette fought back and won, setting a precedent that everyone has a right to his/her own name so long as one makes a living from that name. course it doesn't say anything about people who share the same name, which obviously crossed my mind!

despite jeanette's popularity, this site ranks 6th on a google 'winterson' search which is by far the most popular keyword bringing people here. fifth place belongs to an obscure dead australian band called, you guessed it, winterson. according to their website, winterson's songs "...[had] a strong emphasis on dynamics, often leading to an apparently incoherent or unpredictable song structure." umm, yeah! you can have a listen yourself on their sample page.

this lucky winterson is probably the only winterson ever to have won anything in the lottery. ken winterson won $1000 in a florida instant scratch-off game back in 2002 and looks absolutely thrilled about his good luck. either that or it's one of those fbi stings where they lure in fugitive criminals by telling them they've won something. luck in gambling isn't in the winterson gene pool, methinks. the most i've ever won was at the luxor (vegas, not ancient egypt), about $40 on a goofy horse racing game. of course i lost about $100 ten minutes later placing nonsensical bets on the roulette wheel.

there's a winterson road near the baltimore airport in maryland with a string of random airport motels on it. this particular hotel, the microtel inn & suites, looks like the type of functional anonymous motel where you could wake up one morning and wonder how life has passed by so quickly and why the hell aren't you on a beach sipping a cocktail in thailand.

last but not least, winterson is a character in a video game called max payne 2 which i bought at mbk and played for about 5 minutes before getting distracted and never playing again. can't seem to get too involved in games these days- they don't hold my attention like they used to and i've got too much other stuff to do.

so that's the winterson story. not much to the name really, but certainly more fortunate than this poor guy!!!

spy breeding

i find north korea fascinating- to have a place so untouched by western influence and under such a bizarre doctrine for many years is amazing. although the country has suffered through famine and disasters, there's no sign that things will change any time soon. now the latest from the land that time forgot...

north korea 'bred spies using former us soldiers'

an american army sergeant who spent 40 years in north korea has revealed that the stalinist state operated a programme to breed spies who could pass themselves off as westerners.

as a part of a plea-bargain with the american military, who want him court-martialled on desertion charges, charles jenkins has made the extraordinary claim that other former american soldiers living in north korea were used to father children who are now operating as spies abroad.

mr jenkins disappeared from a guardbox on the demilitarised zone dividing korea in 1965. he is now receiving medical treatment in a tokyo hospital after being allowed to leave north korea with his japanese wife, but faces attempts to extradite him to the united states for trial.

according to testimony which mr jenkins will pass to the us, to whom he says he is ready to surrender, north korean agents abducted women from eastern europe and the middle east, to be married to american soldiers in pyongyang.

in a statement prepared by his american military lawyer, mr jenkins said: "in two of the cases, the americans had multiple children who are now young adults who appear to be american or european."

according to mr jenkins's account, the americans were allowed to marry only so that they could produce spies for north korea, "so they could target american interests in south korea and beyond".

to back up his claim, mr jenkins has produced a photograph of five people he alleges to be spies for north korea. they are believed to be the children of three other american soldiers - james dresnok, larry abshier and jerry wayne - who disappeared into north korea during the cold war. he says that the photograph was taken in april.

the 64-year-old infantry trooper was allowed to leave north korea for the first time since 1965 in june. he and his two daughters flew first to indonesia to meet his japanese wife, hitomi soga, and then on to japan.

after undergoing corrective treatment for a botched prostate operation carried out in north korea, mr jenkins last week promised to turn himself in to the american military. since then he has for the first time spoken of his hatred for the north korean regime. under its control he endured beatings as officials turned the american soldiers against each other.

the diminutive mr jenkins claims that he was repeatedly bullied by mr dresnok. "if i didn't listen to the north korean government, they would tie me up, call dresnok in to beat me. dresnok really enjoyed it," he said.

the claim that north korea ran a spy breeding programme is the latest in a long list of extraordinary operations that north korea is believed to have undertaken in its struggle to gain information about the west.

an impoverished hardline communist state, the country survives by devoting most of its resources to arms programmes and drug-running. its reclusive leader, kim jong-il is known to have installed "pleasure squads" [excellent name, very austin powersish - j] of young women from asia and the middle east in villas in pyongyang. he is also fascinated by the world of espionage and regularly watches james bond films in his private cinemas.

kim has been accused of leading terrorist operations in the 1980s, including planting a bomb on a south korean airliner, killing hundreds of people.

he was widely believed by the west to be insane until madeleine albright, the former american secretary of state, declared him to be "perfectly rational" after a summit in 2000.

the american military said last week that it would provide mr jenkins with a uniform and quarters on a base outside tokyo when he surrenders. "we're always ready to take in deserters and receive them back," said major john amberg, a spokesman for the american army in japan.

sit and smile part 2

one of my first posts was about the 'sit and smile' brand toilet paper i found in tesco lotus. sent it off to engrish.com but it seems that someone else beat me to it. since around july or so i haven't found 'sit and smile' in my local family mart- i've been doing a lot of sitting and grimacing instead.

milk plus

one of the more bizarre restaurants one can find in thailand is milk plus. it's a chain of restaurants specializing in, you guessed it, milk. and if you get hungry you can have some bread. milk plus bread! new milk flavors include apple, blueberry, and cantaloupe milk- not sure about new bread types.

the bovine-themed restaurants are quite popular with students as the original locations were in the siam square area near chulalongkorn university.

for a country that's supposed to be not so keen on dairy products, having a milk restaurant strikes me as a bit strange. i can't imagine such a thing existing in america where dairy is much more accepted as part of one's diet. of course when bill heinecke opened up his first pizza hut in thailand he was told it'd fail because thais don't like cheese- so anything's possible. super-size me!

koh samui - 1/2

before i left thailand for my recent business trip i spent four wonderful days on koh samui, an island in the gulf of siam about 350 miles south of bangkok. getting to koh samui is easy- you either take a quick hour's flight or do a 12-hour overnight train/boat combo. we flew.

the koh samui airport was built by the same folks that own bangkok airways. by some sort of cosmic coincidence, the only airline that flies to koh samui is bangkok airways so choices are limited. but the airline was efficient, staff were friendly, and we somehow arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

we exited the plane and piled with our hand-luggage into little electric carts that reminded me of the ones at the singapore night safari.

the carts took us to the terminal, actually a group of small huts decorated in a sort of fantasy island way, though minus herve villechaize ('look boss, zee plane!').

i had booked a hotel called chaweng cove through a travel agent in bangkok. having made the reservations only a few days earlier i felt lucky to get a room at all- the first half-dozen hotels the agent called were all full and we found just one room at chaweng cove. as we waited for our hotel pickup we saw a few couples struggle to find a room, so i was happy to have booked in advance.

time passed and i began to suspect that our hotel pick-up wasn't going to show. i called the hotel who didn't know anything about a hotel pick-up, so opted to take a van to chaweng instead for 100 baht.

we arrived at chaweng cove only to find that our room wouldn't be ready for another hour and a half, so we decided to explore the beach road for a while. one internet shop, tailor, clothes shop, restaurant, hotel and beerbar blended into another as we walked along. getting hot and sweaty we spotted an oasis in the distance- starbucks! a couple of frappucinos later and we were feeling human again, though quite tired after having woken up at 5am.

we took a songtaew (pickup truck) back to chaweng cove and got the room key, showing ourselves to the bungalow. by that time the midday sun was in full blast and i couldn't wait to take a quick shower and nap in the cool a/c. i opened the door and was shocked by the state of the room- a single dim bulb lit the room, the walls were made from some sort of woven reed with holes around pipes of the a/c unit which was blowing luke warm air. there were no electrical outlets aside from what was powering the fridge and small tv and no telephone for me to check my email with. the room looked absolutely nothing like the online photos- even the standard room on that page looks amazing next to what we had, what i can only assume to be an 'ultra sub-standard' bungalow for 2000 baht a night.

too tired to complain i cranked the a/c to full and collapsed on the bed only to wake up an hour later soaked in sweat. my body had triggered it's 'you are about to suffer from heatstroke' warning and woken me up. the a/c was moaning and groaning but little cool air was coming out of the thing- in fact it was hotter than before. i opened the fridge and stuck my head inside for relief.

headed back to the lobby and asked for someone to please take a look at the a/c. sure enough, a lanky service person showed up a few minutes later and took a good hard look at the a/c unit, confirmed it was turned on, then left. that apparently would be the extent of his effort as when i marched back to the lobby i was told that it is summer in thailand and in thailand summer is hot. at that point i lost my cool (what little there was left to lose) and switched to thai, telling her that i know it's summer but the a/c is obviously broken and the only breeze is coming through the holes in the wall.

marched back to the bungalow and decided that we had to get the hell out of that place. we opened up one of the ubiquitous free samui maps and started calling (nicer-looking) hotels one by one. finally we found a room at the amari for 7000 baht a night and i pounced on it, trying not to think too much about the cost.

i happily informed the lobby nazi that i was leaving and she told me i'd have to pay for a night's accommodation, despite having sweltered in the room for only 2 hours. some frantic calls to my travel agent in bangkok only sealed the refund she'd give me for the other nights, but nothing for the first night. fine, i told the lobby nazi, i'd pay for the first night's accommodation but i'd keep the key! she didn't like that one bit but really couldn't say much except that check-out was 11am the next morning.

we piled into a meter-taxi (no meter- 100 baht) and headed over to the amari palm reef resort. after the chaweng cove the amari was p-a-r-a-d-i-s-e!!!! the staff smiled, the service was efficient, we got a *gasp* welcome drink, and our room has functioning air conditioning. what more could we possibly need?

the next couple of days were spent in total relaxation mode- no agenda, no worries, nowhere to go. perfect!

we wandered down beach road in the evenings to look around, buy some bits and pieces, and grab some food. the length of chaweng beach is completely developed with hotels and looks a complete mess from beach road. there's a constant drone of motorcycles and honking and the sidewalks are about as good as in bangkok- not so good.

fortunately, the various hotels have managed to keep a level of restraint in their development so that from the water it doesn't appear to be so built up from the beach.

the north end of chaweng beach is quite shallow, meaning even when the tide is up it's possible to walk out quite far in the clear water. this photo is looking back on the amari hotel- as you can see, even with all of the hotels near the beach it wasn't very crowded. oddly enough, the pool was buzzing with activity but there were very few hotel guests on the beach.

when the tide was low it was possible to walk out very far, though the heat of the sun can be a bit much in the afternoon.

the only thing that really turned me off about the beach was the amount of vendors walking around selling things. it was as bad as jomtien beach near pattaya- every 30 seconds someone would walk past selling things, trying to get eye contact. and once every few minutes a vendor would call, 'hello sir...hello...hello...hello...hello!' until i looked up. it made reading a book very difficult as i was constantly losing my place and re-reading the same sections over and over.

a german woman sitting near us was passing her time talking with the vendors and occationally buying trinkets. this brought a flood of vendors to her- you can see 5 vendors swarming around her in this photo. unfortunately, this meant that we too were constantly hit with offers to buy sarongs, shorts, sunglasses, and ice cream. perhaps that's why so many guests were around the pool!

in the evenings we went out for dinner around the town, though with all of the good restaurants nearby we didn't have to walk very far. the amari's excellent italian restaurant prego was good enough that we ate there twice- i particularly recommend the gorgonzola gnocchi.

there were a few bizarre eating spots in chaweng, including the belgian seafood restaurant 'captain kirk' that had absolutely no connection to star trek as confirmed by the greeting girls out from. 'sataar tarek? mai ruujak!'

at night pickup trucks constantly cruised around with loadspeakers advertising discos and muay thai kickboxing fights (with disco music). click on the pic above or here to see a short video of one such truck (1.6mb).

koh samui - 2/2

the first couple of days we relaxed on the beach, but from around noon until 3pm it was too hot so we'd rest in the room or take a walk around town. chaweng has songtaew like in pattaya but they are few and far between. meter taxis like this one are everywhere but none of them use the meter- instead they all go by a fixed rate of 100 baht for short trips, or 150 baht if you ask to go to a nicer hotel. we could negotiate down from 150 but 100 was always the lowest price, so there must be an agreement among the drivers to keep prices high.

we stopped by haagen daaz for an ice cream. nothing special, but i really liked this huge photo on the wall. wonder how they achieved the blur- thought it was rotating the camera but the blur is unevenly distributed, so could be a photoshop job.

on the last day i decided to take my life into my hands and rent a small 4x4 to explore the island. i rented through the amari, thinking they would have a better quality vehicle available than the last wreck i rented in phuket and sure enough i'm happy to report that the car didn't break down and no major pieces fell off during the day trip.

the 4x4 was a suzuki sporty caribian (sic), a car that seems exclusive to thailand judging by a google search. it was more than adequate for the relatively good roads in samui, though i had to abort an attempt to reach na muang waterfall when the road got more and more rocky and off-camber. wasn't sure that the insurance (if there was insurance) would have taken care of me had i rolled the suzuki down a hillside.

at any rate, i found samui to be very nice and smaller than i thought- easily driveable in a day so long as one doesn't linger for too long.

first stop was the butterfly garden, part of the central samui village hotel. sure enough there were lots of butterflies inside, though i could only find two varieties- both of which had the frustrating habit of closing their wings and turning away from me when i pointed my camera at them. perhaps the entomologists among my readership can enlighten us as to the genus and species of this particular creature (or perhaps not).

next stop was wat khunaram to see the mummified monk. apparently, the monk died while meditating and a decision was made to mummify him in the meditation position. he wears a cool set of sunglasses, presumably shading his sensitive eyes from all the flashes of tourist cameras. we did what everyone seemed to be doing- arrived, took a photo, thought 'wow, mummified monk', donated 20 baht, and left.

i drove over to taling ngam beach to check it out as i had considered staying at the le royal meridien there. found the beach and nearby area in the photos to be extremely quiet- a throwback to pre-tourism koh samui days. likewise the nearby hotel was one of the only developments in the area. fine for a quiet getaway but i was glad i chose to stay at chaweng where there's more to do and a nicer beach.

last stop before heading home to bangkok was the big buddha statue on the island. we had a coffee and milkshake break in a small shop selling kick-knacks. i chatted with an older couple who turned out to be from bangkok and were in town for a couple of weeks helping their daughter who owned the shop.

there was a constant breeze which was refreshing after a day in the sun. these palms lining the beachfront reminded me of umbrellas turned inside out.

the big buddha himself. was surprisingly quiet with few people around, despite being a weekend.

when making merit in a thai temple it's common to stick some gold (or faux gold) flake on a buddha image. over time it can really accumulate as you can see in one of the photos here.

this particular temple had a novelty- an electronic version of the popular fortune telling ritual. seven 'risk merit making' machines were lined up, one for each day of the week. i found the thursday one (as it was the day i was born) and put a coin in. the lights spun round and stopped on... err... 13!

the number 13 fortune read as follows:

just like an orchard tree not yet yielding fruits, awaiting for rainfall. do not make a hasty decision to move away from this place. wait and see. some development under way. (yikes... so maybe hong kong isn't in the cards after all???). no child forthcoming (whew!!!!). meeting companionable persons and relatives. good lucks approaching. love not being satisfied in the immediate future (ah well...).

flying back from samui provided some great night views of the city. unfortunately i couldn't take any good pics owing to the long exposure time needed.

overall was a great trip. aside from the disaster of the first hotel i really had a good and relaxing time. there is perhaps more to do in phuket in terms of day-trips and nightlife, but for a relaxing get-away samui is the place to go. just be careful where you stay!

stanley kubrick

stanley kubrick's films were landmark events - majestic, memorable and richly researched. but, as the years went by, the time between films grew longer and longer, and less and less was seen of the director. what on earth was he doing? two years after his death, jon ronson was invited to the kubrick estate and let loose among the fabled archive. he was looking for a solution to the mystery - this is what he found.