A ludicrously in-depth account of my trip to RCA, supplemented by a bandwidth-clogging array of pictures!

I just got back from seeing an independent film from The Philippines called Serbis that's about a family who run a porno theater. Yeah, total family fare stuff. Bearing that in mind I thought it would be best to make the review of the film it's own entry so whoever wouldn't want to read a review of a movie with that sort of subject matter (looking your way, sis!) can still read about my trip getting to the theater. Not like I'm gonna put up pictures from the movie or anything, just figured I'd be polite.

The movie is playing at this arthouse theater called "House RCA". I asked Dad's coworker Kun Egg (cool Thai dude who's into movies) about how to get there when he was at Dad's party and oh my did it sound daunting. Take a taxi or scooter (they're cheaper but I rode one once and it damn near made me crap myself, the drivers are madmen!) to this hotel and then hop on a "khlong" (they're water taxis, pretty helpful for accessing sort of out-of-the-way areas more easily gotten to by boat) and take it up one stop and then take ANOTHER taxi to RCA. Whew! Fortunately I had the sense to look up the theater first and upon checking out their map determined that it's very close to a subway stop. This seemed downright serendipitous as I'd been meaning to try out the subway system but hadn't had a reason to yet.

So on I went to the subway which was a bewildering experience, like the SkyTrain the amount you pay depends on how far you go. Once you put in your destination and give the machine your money it in turn spits out...a black plastic coin. Wow, WASN'T what I was expecting. So now that I've got my trusty coin in hand I walk up to the gates with a crowd of people behind me and notice there's no slot to put the coin in. Not wanting to hold up the line I pull a caveman move and simply slap my magical coin against the accursed barrier and VOILA, the doors open! Well to be honest I just figured I would try and use it the same way the SkyTrain works but seriously, who would logically assume that a COIN should be held up against a CARD READER? Thai madness! Anyway I find my way down to the subway platform and an interesting thing I notice is that the railway is closed off by sliding doors. In other words nobody can accidentally/on purpose jump onto the rails as the doors only open when the subway doors line up with them. Wow, that's sorta brilliant!

Arriving at my destination (one stop away, what a trip!) I find myself at another gate and discover that NOW is the time for me to deposit my coin into a slot. Alright, I guess I can see how the system makes sense--although I definitely wanna go back at some point and document the process via photos (preferably when there's not a swarm of commuters behind me) so you can feel my confusion. Heading up to land (the subway's about 3 floors underground) I come out of the station and immediately have NO idea where I am. Definitely should've printed out that map of the place. Undaunted I decide to do what I always do when lost which is pick a direction and stick to it. Pass some cool places on the way, such as this joint:



Man I wish I was hungry because I looooves me some BBQ! Passed a couple more specifically barbeque places too, this area must be BBQ central! Moving on, after walking about ten minutes in my chosen direction (right, if you're curious) and not coming upon my destination I figure I might as well take my chances with a taxi seeing as how there's a sea of them flowing right beside me. I flag one down and upon being asked where I want to go answer "RCA?" hoping it's a popular joint and sure enough it is. I'm worried for a bit that he's taking me to some TOTALLY different place because we get on a highway and stuff but about ten minutes later he drops me off, points across the street and says "There's RCA. You cross." Not realizing what this entails I happily pay the dude and get out, at which point I assess the situation furthter and realize I need to cross SIX LANES OF HIGHWAY TRAFFIC!



In short this experience was TERRIFYING. I must have stood at the first crossing for ten minutes just watching the unending stream of traffic go by in a daze, trying to even fathom how somebody could cross this. A fellow came along and proceeded to perform this seemingly impossible task before me and I stood by suitably transfixed and watched. The dude waited until there was a lull in one lane, walked out as far as he could and then STOOD BETWEEN THE LANES AND WAITED. Traffic whizzing by as he just stands there all humdrum, tapping his foot until there's enough of a gap that he can walk to the other side. I should have just walked beside him and gotten across at the same time but I could not bring myself to do it, I don't even get courage in groups! Eventually there was maybe a 5 second break in traffic and I BOOKED it, full out sprinted to the middle area. Woo, halfway done!! I won't belabor the story by describing the other crossing but eventually I bolted my way across that side too. Next time I am DEFINITELY paying the extra 10 cents just to have the taxi driver flip around!

Near-death experience now behind me I trepidatiously tread forward into the great unknown which is RCA. The thing I didn't realize (the map doesn't exactly show it) is that RCA is actually a street lined mostly with bars (they were the only thing open at least, although it WAS 8PM) and at the end of it was the theater I was looking for. One bar I passed was blasting some incredibly loud club music atop of which rode a subwoofer that sounded like rhythmic thunder. On a lark I put my hand up against the wall and felt the building literally SHAKING. Also took a few pictures of the posters outside of the place because they were...odd.



I like to read the one on the top as if were a very theatrical queen exclaiming "Easy stud, MY will you be Bronco!" Not sure what the word "Bronco" would mean as an adjective in that context but hey, it entertains me. Also I really don't think I could bring myself to dare to touch the one on the bottom, not that there's anything wrong with her but there's just something about the challenging tone of her comment coupled with the fact that I can't see her other hand. Laugh if you will, but that hand could be holding a myriad of weapons with which to bludgen me!

After I had my fill of over-analyzing the posters outside of this swingin' club instead of going in and getting my dance on I mosied on over to the theater which it turns out is connected to a building that ALSO has a "Bowling & Karaoke" joint AND Go-Karts! Hells yeah!



Turns out the Bowling & Karaoke place is shut down though, at least as far as I can tell:



Bummer. Go Kart place was totally open though, just to make this post super-media excessive here's a video of some people driving in it:




Another thing that was attached to the theater was a supermarket and seeing as how I had about an hour to kill before the movie started I set off to wander about in there and look for anything out of the ordinary. Happened upon a couple interesting things:



Cartoon characters are so inspiring, I mean here the top one has dehydrated fish strips for teeth and still he keeps on smiling! Maniacally, even! As for the faux Ariel hawking fried seaweed she seems a little TOO happy considering what she's marketing, so happy in fact that I had no choice but to buy some! Really not much of a gamble though, it was about 30 cents and I figured I like the seaweed that wraps up sushi. Turns out I was right to purchase it as they're very tasty, in essence they were like flat sheets of seaweed-flavored potato chips. Oh and a weird thing about them is the only way to bite off a portion was to soak the area with your tongue, sort of a hard explanation to follow but basically you couldn't really bite through it easily and yet saliva made it melt in your mouth. Still, it's something I'd certainly buy again.

Anyway moving on to the movie theater itself, this is seriously the best theater I have EVER been in! Not because it's all huge and plush like the cineplexes that are at every mall here but because it had a personality and identity all it's own. Let's start with the outside and especially the doors:


Now THOSE are some doors! I'd estimate they're about ten feet tall, I felt like I was entering Oz when I came upon them. As you can see from the first picture there's some neat fixtures inside, here's a couple pictures of them up close:



I wish America didn't give up on circles in architecture/interior design in the 60's because it's seriously just so fetching. Space Age Bachelor Pads 4 life! Anyway having acquired my ticket ($3, can't beat it!) I headed down the loooong hallway to the theater and was met by some absolutely charming wall art on my right:



These must be from the connect-the-dots book Tim Burton had as a kid! Seriously though, WAAAY too cool and they went along the ENTIRE hallway. Speaking of which after making my way to the end of said hallway I turned left and came upon the entrance to the theaters itself:



I really wish the pictures weren't so dark because it didn't actually look like this at all, it was very bright and cheery but I didn't have enough batteries to use the flash so there you go. Either way aren't those entrances AWESOME?!?! I honestly just want to live in this theater, make my home up in the projection booth and eat nothing but popcorn and theater confections. It would be a short life but a fulfilling one. Back to the subject at hand, pictures having been taken and experience subsequently documented I went into the theater and...well, watched the movie. Something worth mentioning though: I was the only person who purchased a ticket for this showing (it was the last one, 10PM) so I was all alone in the theater and that FREAKED ME OUT. Well at first it did, once the movie started my brain was focused on something and not left to wander about in my terrifying imagination. I don't know why but my imagination wants me on edge at every given moment, and considering I haven't used it for anything creative in awhile it makes me wish I could just get rid of the stupid thing. Ah well, moving on...

After the movie was over I ambled back through my now-favorite-movie-theater ever to the entrance and was shown out by a friendly security guard. I grabbed a taxi right outside of the theater (well some hot chicks got one first but hey, they were hot chicks!) and realized upon receiving a confused look from the taxi driver when I said "MRT/Subway" that I didn't remember the name of the MRT stop I came from or know how to say "subway" in Thai. I didn't even bother racking my brain for Thai words since I know maybe ten total and said "SkyTrain?" and made a movement with my hand like it was below ground and he said "Ah, blahblahblah!" (I really need to start making an effort to learn vocabulary from these experiences instead of immediately disregarding it, very bad habit!) and drove me to the subway which turned out to be really close to RCA if I had taken a LEFT! Ah well, 50/50 chance.

Anyway once we got there he asked me where I was going and I told him my address, he said "Oh, that's really close!" and figuring there was no need to leave the taxi I had him take me the rest of the way. He was the first taxi driver I've come across who was actually chatty, he asked me where I was from and I said "America" and he said "Oh, America, very good! We happy you have Obama!" and I laughed and said "Me too!" Once we arrived outside of the house I offered him some of the fried seaweed and he said "Hmm, I'll try a LITTLE..." and snapped off a bit. Gave him a better tip since he was so friendly, he seemed sort of taken aback by it (which is funny because I gave him 60 cents instead of the standard tip which no matter how far you go is about 15 or 30 cents) but wished me a good night.

Well that's finally the end of it, still haven't quite mastered the art of being succint but I'll keep on trying! As I said before I'll make the review of the film a seperate post so this one isn't as perilously long as SOME of my past entries have been (plus this one's got pictures!) AND that way not everybody has to read a film review about a porno theater in the Philippines if they don't want to. Everybody wins!

The Good and Bad of Bangkok

Obviously I haven't lived here long enough to really know anything about the place, this is just what I've noticed so far.

Good:
-If you buy food from street vendors you'll never pay more than $1.50 for a meal.
Bad:
-Buying food this cheaply sets an unreasonable standard in your head where paying a normal amount for a meal (say, $5) is infeasible.
Good:
-The most expensive bottle of water I've seen here was 20 baht (about 60 cents) and it was 1.5 liters.
Bad:
-I'll never be able to buy bottled water again in America without wincing.
Good:
-A lot of items and services (basically anything made expensive because of labor involved) are cheaper in Thailand, like T-shirts, tailor-made clothes, massages, taxis, etc.
Bad:
-This can very easily lead you to the ill-advised conclusion that everything is cheaper in Thailand which is certainly not true. I've seen pints of Ben & Jerry's here going for $10.
Good:
-Anybody selling goods knows at least a passable amount of English.
Bad:
-Knowing that is a crutch which prevents you from ever challenging yourself to learn more Thai since you're worried you'll sound like a retard and would rather just speak your own language.
Good:
-Thai people are very friendly and always smiling.
Bad:
-More often than not their teeth are perfect and make you self-conscious about your own, hence you don't smile as much as them and probably make them think you're some sullen jerk.
Good:
-Young Thai people are incredibly fashion conscious and make for good people watching.
Bad:
-You feel like a complete schlub next to them.
Good:
-Thai people seem to revere our culture and language considering how much of it is around, American movies everywhere and t-shirts with English on them just for the sake of having English phrases.
Bad:
-As an American you're a dime a dozen here so while they may enjoy your culture that doesn't make you interesting.
Good:
-Their culture is genuinely interesting, they've made lots of cool movies and they've got musical instruments that sound unique.
Bad:
-You're a tourist and you have no idea where to find any of this stuff. Almost all of their movies on DVD have no English subtitles and you have an easier time finding places to buy Thai instruments from in America than you do here.
Good:
-It's never cold.
Bad:
-It's always hot.
Good:
-The city is endless!
Bad:
-The city is endless.

Holy crap, a SHORT post!

I figured a deserved respite was in order after those two perilously long entries, therefore this one's gonna be nothing but two quick videos I've taken while here.

This is a performer I saw at Chatuchak Market who was playing a LEAF. Like, seriously, just a regular ol' green leaf. I wish I knew some Thai so I could ask him to show it to the camera for everybody else's sake. Ah well.

Here's an elephant walking in traffic. Check out the tail-light!

My first Thai movie (in the theater, that is)

Note: This actually happened Friday, Oct. 17th and I'm just now getting around to posting it on here. Not like that really matters obviously, just figured I'd be forthright.

Well I finally went and saw my first Thai movie in the theater, but before I talk about the movie itself let me talk a little bit about the theater: Ohhhhh so nice! I picked this place (SFW Interational Cinema on the top floor of CentralWorld) because it was the only one I saw that specifically mentioned the movie having English subtitles (Which were actually very good, couple problems with tenses but that's to be expected since Thai doesn't have verbs change based on tense) but like all the big mall theaters here it was super new and shiny. Very comfortable reclining seats, nice big screen, great sound, all for a $5 ticket. Interesting little tidbit about Thai moviegoing customs, they have a RIDICULOUS amount of commercials and trailers before the movie starts (I'd say about 3x as long as in America) AND right before the film itself begins there is always a five minute montage of footage of their king that you MUST stand during. Not that I mind since really when you think about it we do the same thing with the Star Spangled Banner before a sports event, just thought it was a fun little fact worth mentioning.

Anyway onto the movie itself, the film was called "E-Tim Tay Nae" (no idea what that means) and was about an affable fellow named Tung who's a fake muay thai boxer and real crocodile wrestler (and for some reason the fake muay thai boxing takes precedence over the latter in this movie??) The actor who plays him is named Udom "Nose" Taepanich and is apparently a very well known comedian in Thailand. I'd never seen him before (which isn't saying much since I've seen maybe six Thai movies) but I dug his work in this, he handles the mixture of humor, weirdness and sadness very well. Also he looks alot like Jackie Chan, or at least I think so. Can anyone else see it?




The first half hour of the film shows Tung just sorta going about his business, performing staged muay thai boxing matches at a bar for tourists, feeding stray dogs, breaking up with girls he doesn't know (our man Tung's got this rather pecular habit of breaking up with women before he's even dated them...or met them), and constantly picking on this girl who hangs around him because she pretends to be a "Hmong" for the sake of selling tourists inhalants and other ephemera. Obviously I didn't know anything about them during the movie so I assumed they were sorta like Native Americans but for Thailand, however Wikipedia now tells me otherwise. I enjoyed this segment of the movie a lot because it sort of reminded me of a grown up version of Napoleon Dynamite in Bangkok, just this very socially awkward and endearingly weird dude doing his own thing. It's also shown that Tung is a huge fan of REAL Muay Thai Boxing and is particularly fond of the #1 boxer who (predictably) is a raging asshole that won't even give Tung an autograph. Of course Tung still thinks the world of him and ceaselessly defends his actions.

Right before one of his staged matches Tung eyes a Japanese girl come into the bar and sit in the stands (she's the only one there) and he's immediately smitten with her. He decides to show off his moves much to the chagrin of his friend that he's supposed to be fake boxing and Tung hilariously goes to town on him. By the time the match is over Tung looks up and she's vanished. Dejected, he heads to his favorite food stand and who just happens to stop by but the cute lil' pixie of a Japanese girl? Breaking from describing the story for a bit, the actress who plays this girl (who the internet is telling me is a swimsuit model named Asuka Yanagi, although the pictures I'm finding of her look NOTHING like she does in the movie) is seriously just incomprehensibly adorable. An absolute joy to watch. Back to the proceedings though, they start to chat a little bit in English (which neither of them knows particularly well) and have a cute little exchange where she says Tung is the best boxer she's ever seen and he tells her how they keep soy sauce in Coke bottles. Of course Tung being Tung he sees a good thing starting to happen (we're led to believe this is the first time that's actually happened) and like always tries to nip it in the bud by telling her they need to break up. Problem is he can't explain the concept well enough in English and she has no idea what he's trying to say!

Tung decides to drown his sorrows at his favorite bar and we meet his "farang" (Thai for foreigner) friend who runs the place. The farang tells him he needs to stop breaking up with girls (since as far as he knows Tung has actually been dating all of these women) and follow his heart. Tung decides he's right and runs back to the food stand only to find that the Japanese sprite has vanished, possibly back to the World of Fairies to be with her kind. He goes about his regular routine for a little while and then lo and behold the Hmong girl brings Tung a note from the Japanese girl that says "Go-oodbye." This leads to a very funny exchange where Tung and his friend try to figure out what she's trying to say until the bar owner smacks some sense into him. With a wave of the movie magic wand Tung instantly figures out what Japanese restaraunt she's eating at and slips her a note that says something cute which unfortunately I can't remember. Either way he then shows up with a microphone and does a little song and dance and this leads into a SUPER cute montage of them enjoying each others company.

Now as far as the trailers and the poster had showed me this WAS the movie: He meets the Japanese girl, he's a muay thai boxer, they fall for each other, that's the whole movie. I mean just look at the poster:



What they didn't convey is that as happy as they are Tung ends up taking the Japanese girl to see his muay thai hero fight. After the fight Tung goes back stage to get an autograph (which he's able to do now since he's got a hottie in tow) and it turns out that aside from being ripped and tall and handsome Mr. Boxer Man ALSO speaks Japanese! Oh snaaap, Tung's looking like a scrub now! After this Tung has another staged match and during it Japanese Girl shows up and as a surprise has brought Boxing Man along with her. Tung asks Boxing Man to come in and spar with him and like the jerk he is he agrees to and pummels Tung senseless. During this beating the Japanese Girl closes her eyes and imagines the whole thing as an anime sequence which I found to be a very effective (and cheap!) way to play up how violent this encounter is. As he's about to slip out of consciousness Boxing Man tells Tung that his fundamentals are good and he's willing to train him if he wants to. Tung wakes up in the hospital some indiscriminate amount of time later and is very forgiving of Boxing Man, saying he's a professional and he isn't able to fight at less than 100%. Once he's off the hospital bed Tung goes to find the Japanese Girl and isn't able to, then decides to take Boxing Man up on his training offer and stumbles upon the two of them in bed. Heartbroken, he staggers out.

Alright, this whole blow-by-blow summary thing is WAAAAY too long so I'll try to step it up a bit more. Basically after this happens Tung goes to the gym and pleads with Boxing Man to give him back his lady, Boxing Man says screw you, Tung says please again, Boxing Man says I'll fight you for her...ONE HANDED! Tung isn't too keen on this but gets goaded into a fully sanctioned, heavily advertised match one month from then. He doesn't know what he should do for training and happens to discover that Foreign Bar Owner is a certified ass kicker, asks him for training, Foreign Man teaches him how to play Badminton and puts him through the usual workout montage paces. Tung asks why he's playing all this badminton and when they're gonna start punching crap and Foreign Bar Owner says "I don't know how to train people to fight". Tung feels betrayed and skulks off to the bar he used to work for which he sorta neglected to call during all this and tell them he wasn't coming in anymore. After some whacking from the Bar Lady she shows him that everybody's got together to wish him the best and they do a hilarious little dance number. Hmong Girl made him some boxing shorts by hand! After this it's off to the fight, which if you've seen ANY movie about the underdog going up against the champion has only one possible outcome. It turns out all that badminton was to teach Tung a way of fighting that a traditional muay thai boxer wouldn't expect or know how to counteract. When it looks like Tung has the upperhand Japanese Girl inexplicably gives Tung a bottle of drugged water and Boxing Man owns his ass the next round. Right before another round is set to begin the Hmong girl remembers that the Boxing Man hates the smell of durian (it's this fruit that smells awful but tastes great, go figure) and rubs it all over Tung. Tung flips out and yells at her for being around all the time and for smearing smelly crap on him and just being weird and tells her he never wants to see her again. Then he proceeds to beat Boxing Man by giving him a severe allergic reaction just by his close proximity. Victory!

Japanese Girl comes into the locker room after the fight and tearfully apologizes for the drugged water bottle, which the audience comes to realize Tung hadn't even considered until she admitted it. He pretends to have known all about it though and she vanishes out of his life again, and then Tung realizes the girl for him all along was Hmong and chases her down only to discover she really IS a Hmong and lives with her tribespeople family and is working at a McDonalds! He sings a little ditty for her over the McDonalds P.A. and then they kiss and it's all over, happy ending!

Yeah I'll fully admit that my summary of this film is much longer than it needs to be considering how standard-issue the plot is. Overall I enjoyed the film alot and appreciated seeing it, it's genuinely funny and I laughed out loud a lot more than I expected to. I also really enjoyed the characters and all of their quirks. What really bothered me is it seemed like they made two different films: one is about a hapless weirdo who meets a super cute Japanese girl (obviously the one I'd prefer to see) and the other one is about a dude betrayed who fights to regain his honor and remake Rocky. The two don't mesh well together and the film feels the weaker for it, particularly in that I couldn't understand the motivation of the Japanese girl AT ALL. Now granted Tung is just this ordinary schlub and Boxing Man is this huge hunk o' dude who speaks her frigging language so I can get why she'd sleep with him. The problem though is once Tung catches them in bed together you NEVER see her again until she's in the stands at the match, where honestly she looks just as concerned for him as she does for Boxing Man. The whole drugged water bottle thing is a bizarre plot device that serves no purpose other than to write Japanese Girl out of the picture, I mean short of there being some subplot that was cut where it turns out she had money riding on Boxing Man or they were gonna get married or something like that this whole aspect is just pointless and destroys your sympathy for the character for seemingly no reason.

Really I'm just saying that considering the poster for this movie features Tung and Japanese Girl equally (and NO ONE ELSE) it's really surprising that she's such a crucial part of the plot up until a certain point and then just vanishes for a significant chunk of the film. Not that I think films should be without strife but I really just wish the film was structured around what they sold it on, two very different people from different countries finding each other and connecting despite their differences. You could still have the whole boxing match if you wanted to because Boxing Man would want Japanese Girl and Tung has to fight to defend her honor, something like that. Granted I think the Hmong girl is very cute and I liked in the end where they referenced their differences in the past but it still feels like a very different movie.

The strange thing is I don't mind films that follow very well-worn archetypes on principle alone. Some of my favorite films to watch are the most obvious, run-of-the-mill plots that you've seen in hundreds of other movies. I think where I respect those movies though is in their transparency, they're never trying to hide what sort of movies they are and they wear their influences on their sleeve. This film however started off with a completely different trajectory and then sort of transformed into one of those "He can do it if he believes in the power of his dreams!" flicks which I find (not to be overly dramatic) dishonest. Overall I would still recommend this film as being worth watching though, when it does it right it does it VERY right and it's a feel-good flick that doesn't make you feel stupid for enjoying it.

Well that's FINALLY the end of this post, I greatly appreciate anybody who had the patience or intestinal fortitude to make it all the way down here and I promise if I do reviews in the future they'll be a lot shorter. Speaking of which tomorrow (not this review's tomorrow but the real one, Wed. Oct 29th) I'm going with Tina to see a new Thai movie called Queens of Langkasuka that looks EPIC. Here's a YouTube copy of the trailer (no subs, but really this movie looks like it's all about the visuals):



Mmm, pretty. I hate to pigeonhole the film before even seeing it but I get a definite "Thai Pirates of the Caribbean" vibe off of it (in a good way), definitely looking forward to seeing this one in the theater just to drink in all the spectacle. Can you believe this was made for only $10 million!?!?

Chatuchak Market

Holy crap this place is frigging insane. I have never seen so many people in such a (relatively) small space, just a ceaseless throng of bodies in motion. I read online that there are over FIFTEEN THOUSAND different shops and stalls in this one place and having seen a small fraction of that total I would believe it. The way it seems to work is there's a major "highway" around the market which has endless stalls on both sides. This alone is enough to keep you occupied for hours, BUT between every couple stalls on either side is a little "side-road" that takes you where the majority of the stalls are, i.e. the real meat of the marketplace.




To give you a sense of how vast this part of Chatuchak is: if you started a game of hide and go seek and gave someone just a ten second head start you would NEVER find them again. I mean EVER. I made the mistake after buying something (more about that specific purchase later) of walking away and then thinking "Y'know, I should exchange this for another size." By pure dumb luck I was able to find it again...after a half hour of looking.




As for what they sell there, what I'd read online said they sold absolutely everything under the sun and considering the amount of stuff I undoubtedly missed I don't doubt this, however most of what I saw was just tourist crap. Granted some very nice tourist crap (really well made statues, baubles, silks, etc) but it sorta all blended together after awhile. Then while wandering about aimlessly in the terrifying grid that is the stall section of the marketplace I stumbled upon easily one of the coolest things I have ever seen:


http://www.koart.co.th/index_main.php


The website only has a couple pictures and they don't really give you a sense of the insane amount of detail in the work. Unfortunately the stall had a very strict "No Photo" policy so I couldn't take pictures of all the things I wanted to (which honestly was everything.) Anyway I ended up purchasing something small there (can't say what it is, it's a suuuurpriiiiise...) and while the cute clerk was ringing me up the owner walked out and asked me if I'd like to come inside and look at the bigger pieces. Bigger pieces such as a SEVEN FOOT TALL ALIEN WITH WORKING INNER JAW AND AN H.R. GIGER STYLE SPINNING CHAIR!!!! I must've looked like the biggest retard because I was just giggling incessantly with my mouth agape as I poked through all the other things he had in there, R2D2s and C3P0s and Darth Vaders and Gundams and Maijins and aliens and predators. All entirely crafted from nothing but recycled machine parts, screws and washers and who knows what else. Of course since these are actual works of art the prices on them weren't what you'd pay for trinkets (the little thing I got was about $17, that chair I mentioned earlier that he actually let me sit in was $9,000). I really wish I could pull myself together enough to scrape up some filming equipment and go shoot a little bio-piece on this guy and his work because it's really something I think more people need to see.




Anyway fanboy excitement aside, the other thing I literally wandered into was Chatuchak's fashion section. Now Bangkok in general is super fashion conscious (every big mall I've been in is almost entirely high-end boutique stores) and everybody dresses like rock stars but now I FINALLY know where the ones that aren't loaded get their gear. This place was a hipster's paradise. Hundreds upon hundreds of shirts you'd expect to see on Threadless for only $6 each. One stall in particular I was just startled to find even exists was called Filmsover. It was all filmmaking themed and intelligently so, not ridiculous engrish like you might expect. One design I particularly dug was the prototypical director's chair with the word "God" emblazoned on the back of it. I bought a couple shirts here (which yet again I can't divulge information about since they're gifts) and then stumbled upon another stall with two bad-ass (one of which in particular is just bizarre) designs I picked up as well for gifts. Honestly this section was REALLY hard to stay in for too long just because it was serious sensory overload, there were way too many awesome designs and granted they're $6 each but that really starts to add up. For fun I started doing the math while riding the subway home and figured out you could have a new shirt for every workday for $120/month. Anyway digressing back to this part of the fair, I really wish I could pull off looking cool (or at least conveying what my interests are externally) because this whole area was filled with people who just seemed super neat. Granted I'm sure a lot of them were the Bangkok equivalent of scenesters but some of them just seemed like people I'd like to hang out with, one dude in particular was just chilling out in his stall bopping his head to some cool tunes and just really sort of unaware and awesome. I'd really like to know if the people running the shops were also the shirt designers/makers because the two places I purchased from were both run by really cute, young girls and if so then I'm 100% in love.




So pretty awkward segue but one thing about the Chatuchak Market that I wasn't expecting was the begging. Like any major city you see a lot of it here and you grow pretty acclimated to it and get good at looking the other way, however here the people begging were all very heartbreakingly handicapped or disfigured. I saw one woman three times (which considering the size of the market is a strange happenstance) who had some sort of skin condition that made her look like a very bad burn victim with no ears or nose and her eyes were bloody red with no pupils. I actually saw a video of a baby with this condition (only click on that if you want to be really freaked out and made sad) and looking it up again now I find it's called Harlequin-type ichthyosis. Anyway besides her there was also a woman with no eyeballs (and eyes open enough where you could tell this was the case) pantomiming singing a song playing on a radio hanging around her neck and an infant who also looked like a burn victim but in a different way. Honestly I couldn't even describe that one because as soon as I saw him I looked away, seeing kids with those sort of conditions is just too hard to handle (which I know is a hell of a thing to say for a guy who doesn't have to deal with it in any way, shape or form). Anyway all I'm saying is like I'm finding with everything in Bangkok it made for a very strange juxtaposition of very fun and very sad. Like when you walk out of one of the seven-story malls (there's more than one) and right across the street is a series of incredibly run down buildings and wild dogs roaming around. It's a very heady mixture of extremes.




So yeah, that was seriously my entire day, what with the trip out and back and all the time spent there. Speaking of spent I blew WAY more money than I should have, my justification though is that this is my first week in Bangkok and I'm visiting these places for the first time, so I can be expected to indulge a little. Now that I've seen these things I'm really going to be frugal, I've bought enough stuff and now I just wanna bumble around and see what I can see for free.






Oh, and on a closing note...

COP ON SEGWAY!!!

My first post!

Well I finally went ahead and actually got a blog together to document me being boring...IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY! WHOAAAAAAA!! I'm hoping to update it a decent amount but generally with me the best laid plans are laid to waste, or rather are just severely procrastinated upon. I swear I was going to get around to laying them to waste, honest!

I've been here for two weeks so far and have done a couple things I wanted to write about/post pictures from but I still need some time to gather my thoughts and basically see how many details I wanted to mention that I've already forgotten. After this (admittedly meaningless) post I'll put up a recounting of a place I went to that I've actually gotten around to summarizing in words, it's not the first thing I did here so for a little while this blog is going to be out of chronological order. Hopefully I'll catch up with the present soon enough though and then it's wagons ho from there into the shiny new future! Thanks for checking this out and I hope more often than not that checking this blog it isn't a waste of your time (or at least a major one).