One man in Bangkok

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m a bit of a freak for my blog statistics. I’m not as bad as I was when I first started, but I still check at least once a day. One thing I like to check up on is the search engine terms - things that people have typed into search engines that linked to my site. Some of my favourites so far have been

“ladyboy sit bangkok” from a Norwegian search engine

“photo of monkey drinking beer” and

“jellyfish dead human”

However, my absolute favourite, all time best search item came in today. Somebody searched for

“one man in bangkok blog”

Yes! Somebody actually searched Google for me!! Word is spreading, I am growing (and it’s not only my waistline). You have made my day that person, thank you.

I haven’t had much time to post over the last few days because I’m supposed to be studying. I have a test on Saturday from the first book of my Thai class that I want to ace. I’ve also got a short kind of thesis to write for my other course. The other day I took a break from (*cough*) studying and went to The Mall Bang Kapi to see the parrots. There’s a little island in the middle of the shopping centre with parrots living on it. The big blue one on the middle right often makes grumpy noises, but none of them ever try to fly away.

In the water around the big birds are some enormous fish. Masive, massive, massive fish. I like them.

I can still steal internet, but only intermittently. Anyone who has proper broadband and is/was a Star Wars fan should check out youtube and search for Chad Vader for a funny spoof. Also, football fans (as in the proper football - where the players use their feet, not the hand ball, egg chasing played in North America) should search for Rio Ferdinad singing.

My fan is growling at me - should I be scared?

Yesterday I let Mina fiddle about with the computer for a while whilst I did something manly and when I came back, the clever computer had gone and connected itself to some kind of wireless broadband network all by itself. Needless to say, I was quite overjoyed about this. Yesterday I had the best home browsing experience of my life. Seriously, this unsecured wireless broadband network that somebody has set up near my home is wonderful, but the fact remains that I can’t decide if I’m stealing or not. It’s obviously something I haven’t paid for, but if I could get reliable surfing like I had yesterday, I would most certainly.

Am I stealing internet? Does this make me a bad melv?

Ok, it’s time to admit it. Despite evidence to the contrary on Google, I’ve always maintained my bad melv innocence. However, today the truth has come crashing home. You see, today is my friend in Korea Rachel Lynn’s birthday - and I forgot. Despite several subtle and not so subtle reminders. Sorry Rachel Lynn.

I urge you all to visit her website now and buy her something she is desperately in need of - sweaters. I mean, she’s going into the Korean winter with just 22!!! Don’t be shy, act now.

Here are some hot pictures of my hot birthday friend.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL LYNN

i berry is the bestest most wonderful place in the world. The ice cream at that place is worth the trip to Thailand all on it’s own. This is Mina, looking cheesy and enjoying a double scoop of strawberry yoghurt and cha yen. Cha yen is a kind of Assam tea that is often translated as Thai tea. It’s very sweet, very milky and always served with lots and lots of crushed ice - delicious!

All the ice creams in i berry are home made (at whose home, I’m not sure) and the range of flavours changes quite often. You can sample such delights as Horlicks, rambutan sorbet, cookie malt, red bean & green tea (I’ll leave you to sample that one though - I wouldn’t touch it with your spoon!). There’s even some kind of cheese ice cream that I’m yet to try (surprisingly), you can actually see the pieces of cheese in it. I’ll let you know when I’ve done it.

It appears I was wrong on a previous post about Lumpini Park. The statue of the king isn’t King Rama V, but according to Mina, and I quote “King Rama VI, or King Rama III, I think, maybe.” Thanks. For. That. Anyway, this is King Rama V.

Also, according to the precise one, those pictures of my eyes in another previous post weren’t taken by me (in fairness, the closest I ever came to claiming them as my own was when I said “I can’t even be sure if it was actually me that took them or not”) . They were in fact taken by Mina when she was thinking about making them into something pop arty, or something. So I am hereby officially granting the rights of those particularly fine pictures of my eyes to one Miss Mina Chan. May she use them wisely.

Just like Shelly, I stole this from Rachel Lynn.

I am Mr Do.I am sedentary by nature, enjoying passive entertainment, eating when the mood takes me, and playing with my food. I try to avoid conflict, but when I’m angered, I can be a devil - if you force me to fight, I will crush you. With apples. What Video Game Character Are You?

What the hell is a Mr Do?????? Now am I missing something here coz I’ve never heard of this guy or his golden apples. Who is he? He looks like Mr. Magoo wearing a strawberry!

Today is Remembrance Day in the British Commonwealth, where we remember all the people who died in World War One, and all wars. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month GMT, a two minute silence is held, one minute each for the two world wars. To symbolise that we remember and appreciate the sacrifice that many people made, we wear poppies.

I would like to be wearing one of these today. Procedes from the sales of this kind of poppy go to help the survivors of the world wars and war charities.

I usually have strong anti-war views, but I feel that the sacrfice made for their country by these men and women should be remembered.

We shall remember you.

I had nothing to do today, so I was thinking about spending an afternoon by the pool catching up on the adventures of Mr. Frodo and friends (I’m currently reading Lord of the Rings for something like the tenth time). Alas though, hunger and boredom drove me out of the apartment before I got the chance to do that. So, some time late this afternoon I found myself outside Lumpini Park in the central business district of Bangkok. Limpini Park is one of my favourite places to relax in Bankok, just like Regents Park is in London. Right outside the gates to the park there’s a statue of one of the great Thai kings from history, in English his name is King Rama V. He’s the king portrayed in those rubbish stories with names like Anna and the King, Anna and the King of Siam, The King and I, etc etc.

The inside of the park is massive and at times so peaceful that you’d never think you’re in the centre of one of the busiest cities in Asia. It’s also one of the best places to see the unique Bangkok skyline. In the centre of this picture you might be able to see the top of the Roue de Paris big wheel that I posted a picture of a few weeks ago. No? Well I can!

I think this cloud formation looks a little bit like the sillhouette of a man pointing at something menacingly.

There are loads of places to just sit, relax, do nothing and watch the world go by. One of my favourite things to do is watch the men play takraw, a Thai game that’s a kind of cross between football and volleyball. Seriously this is one of the most fun amateur level games you can watch, it’s so skillful. When I see guys play this game I’m shocked that Thailand has such a rubbish football team. Most of the guys I saw playing today have ball control skills that would put a lot of professional English players to shame. I was watching one game for so long today that one of the players invited me to join. Now I’ve never played this game before, and judging from my abysmal footie skills, I don’t think I’d make much of an impact in a game of takraw. The idea of showcasing my (lack of) skills against these guys was strangely unappealing so I made the best Thai excuse that I could (’Mai dai’ - I can not) and swiftly exited. (Thanks to this site for the cool takraw image - my ones are crap!)

Another thing I like to do is just walk around and look at some of the architecture there. This may well be another sala, like the one in the Loy Kratong post, I’m not sure really - I’m going to call it a gazebo anyway.

One thing I love about Lumpini park in the evenings is the aerobics. After work it seems like most of the CBD workers head down to the park to sweat out the days’ toils with their colleagues. Seriously there are little aerobics groups all over the park. The music can be annoying, but it’s fun to watch the fat businessmen sweating buckets. These were the two biggest groups today.

I joined a comunity called Stumbleupon it’s a lot of fun and I would recommend it to anyone who likes randomness. So, in my stumbling today, I came accross a site that draws a map of all the countries you’ve been to. I like this idea, but have to say I feel pretty disappointed by the results. If you had asked me before I found this site, I would have told you I’m pretty well travelled. However, after visiting this site I can see that my map need some serious development. I think trips to Russia, Australia, Nigeria, Cananda and Brazil are in order, just to fill it out a little. Then after that I can visit China, Mongolia, Greenland and some big African countries as well. That would set things straight a bit. Seriously, no South America, no Africa and no Australasia. In fact just two or three souther hemisphere countries full stop (I’m not sure if Taiwan is southern or northern).