Aliens Invade Nana Plaza
Lordy, am I burned from my recent two week press trip to Southeast Asia, considering the bus and BART to SFO, then the flight to LAX then layover, then Malaysia Airlines to Taipei for a refueling stop, then onward to Kuala Lumpur, finally followed by a 1 hour van ride to Pan Pacific Glen Marie, a fine golf resort outside the city, but my mind was reeling. Then 2 weeks in SE Asia and must go Sacramento immediately upon return to celebrate and moan the 60 B Day of my sister. Finally, back home, and no more travel for the foreseeable future.
But maybe some time to resume this blog.
Good letters today in The Nation:
Terrorists deserve at least the same sentence as dopers
Abu Bakar Bashir, who breeds Muslim terrorists and masterminded the Bali bombings that killed [202] innocent people and crippled Bali’s tourist economy, only got two years for his crimes, while Australian Schapelle Corby received 20 years for marijuana found in her surfboard bag. Unbelievable! I guess the only real way to catch terrorists in Indonesia is to plant weed in their bags and hope they get caught at Customs. Where is the CIA when you really need them?
Australians should boycott Indonesia to protest this travesty of justice.
Voltaire
Bangkok
Govt bears the brunt of blame for prostitution
After reading numerous reactions from readers about the sex industry in Thailand, I am tempted to contribute my humble opinion.
Most Thais are firm in their obvious but misguided belief that prostitution does not exist in Thailand, because, according to them, prostitution, in its literal context, is illegal. This explains why they are blind to categorising massage parlours, hotels, motels, pubs, bars and restaurants that openly offer sexual services as brothels. This also explains why they insist on calling prostitutes “wives for hire”. People can argue endlessly about who’s to blame for the proliferation of so-called “wives for hire” or the rapid growth of the sex industry in Thailand. Some even accuse the Japanese for triggering the use of women for sex for their needs (“comfort women”) during World War II. Others blame the US servicemen who flocked to Bangkok for paid sex during the Vietnam War. Few associate it with Thai culture. But most fault the sex workers themselves. In actuality, no one is more responsible for the proliferation of Thai sex workers than the government itself. The sex industry in Thailand has remained untouchable, simply because it yields substantial revenue for the government. Presently, the government can easily obtain tens of billions of baht in annual revenue solely from taxes on hotels, bars, restaurants, massage parlours and other related entertainment businesses that flourish in its wake. As the industry is internationalised or internationally patronised, additional hundreds of billions can be collected from tourism-related taxes. Income tax from the half-a-million “wives for hire” is estimated to reach tens of billions, not including the hundred of billions of baht from the income tax of the owners, managers, pimps and other employees of sex establishments. Summing up all of these numbers, one can appreciate the significance of the industry to the financial security of Thailand. It occupies an economic sector crucial to the country’s national income and vital to the livelihood of every single Thai.
Hence, to blame the growth of the sex industry on the sex workers, who are mostly uneducated and belong to poor farming families, whose annual salary as a “wife for hire” is 10 times that of an ordinary manufacturing job and whose parents are painfully tolerant of the work because of poverty, is not only an act of arrogance but worse - un-Buddhist.
Monday, May 30, 2005
Bangkok Post Letters
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Asia Schedule May
Greetings,
I will be in Southeast Asia from this Monday (next week) until the end of May, and would enjoy getting together with other bloggers or writers during my time in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Singapore. Please send a message or call the following hotels:
*****************************
PRESS FAM TO ASIA
May 15-27, 2005
SFO group leaves SFO for LAX May 14
Leave LAX to Kuala Lumpur May 15
Arrive from LAX into KLIA May 16
Reside at Pan Pacific Glenmarie Kuala Lumpur May 16 & 17
Reside at Pan Pacific Kuala Lumpur (downtown) May 18 & 19
Reside at Pacific Bangkok May 20 & 21
Reside at Pan Pacific Singapore May 22, 23 & 24
Reside at KL International Airport May 25 & 26
LAX Group departs KLIA to North America May 27
Monday, May 16, 2005
Arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12:15 p.m.
Transfer to Pan Pacific Glenmarie, check into hotel for 16 & 17
Hotel Contact: Sabri
Pan Pacific Glenmarie Kuala Lumpur
1 Jalan Usahawan U1/8, Seksyen U1
40250 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Phone: (603) 7800 4711
Fax: (603) 7800 4880
Email: msabri@panpacific.com
Wed
Transfer to Pan Pacific Kuala Lumpur
10:00 am Check into Pan Pacific Kuala Lumpur for 18 & 19
Welcome kompang/Bunga Manga/Orchid Garland
Pan Pacific Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Putra
P.O. Box 11468
50746 Kuala Lumpur
General Line: 603-4042 5555
Direct Line: 603-4049 4405 – Patrick
Direct Line: 603-4049 4440 - Alicia
Direct Fax: 603-4043 5253
E-mail: patrickng@panpacific.com
Email: ajherrera@panpacific.com
Friday, May 20, 2005
6.30am Breakfast at Selera Restaurant
7.00am – 8.00am Leave Pan Pacific Kuala Lumpur to KL International Airport
10:00 a.m. Flight #784 - Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, arriving 11:05 a.m.
11:05 a.m. Transfer from Airport to Hotel
Stay at Pan Pacific Bangkok on May 20 & 21
Hotel Contact:
Pan Pacific Bangkok
952 Rama IV Road
Suriyawongse, Bangrak
Bangkok 10500
Thailand
Tel: (66) 0 2632 9000 ext 4115
DID (66) 0 2632 9018
Fax: (66) 0 2632 9011
E-mail: pallapa@panpacific.com
Saturday, May 21, 2005
6:30 am Hosted breakfast at Heights Café Restaurant
7:30 am Damnern Saduak Floating Market and Rose Garden
Sunday, May 22, 2005
8:00 am Hosted breakfast at Pacific Lounge with PATA briefing by Mr.
Ken Scott, Director-Communications
Check in and stay at Pan Pacific Singapore May 22, 23 & 24
Hotel Contact:
Pan Pacific Singapore
7 Raffles Boulevard. Marina Square
Singapore 039595
Phone: (65) 6826 8211
Fax: (65) 6339 0382
Email: jbeattie@panpacific.com
Tbd Hosted dinner at tbd
Stay at Pan Pacific KLIA on May 25 & 26
Hotel contacts:
Pan Pacific Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Jalan CTA 4B, 64000 KLIA, Sepang
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Alex: DID: (603) 8778 0011
Sharon: DID: (603) 8778 0050
Fax: (603) 8787 1168/(603) 8787 5555
Email: achin@panpacific.com/swong@panpacific.com
Group departs KLIA at 3:15 p.m. on Malaysia Airlines flight #94 and arrives LAX at 6:25 p.m. (on the same day)
SFO group departs LAX at 9:10 p.m. on United #996 and arrives
SFO at 10:24 p.m.
India Guard Rajasthan
Photo by Carl Parkes
From December 1979 to April 1980 I traveled around the Indian subcontinent, from Calcutta up to Kathmandu then south via the Ganges River to Agra, Delhi, Rajasthan, and finally south to Goa, Kerala and Sri Lanka. During this six months in the region, along with a bus full of crazed European hippies and one very fun Jew from New York who claimed to be the owner of Studio 54, I spent several weeks in the Rajasthan desert near the Pakistani border. This finely bearded fellow served as a palace guard in Udaipur and was only most happy to pose for a photo.
Burj Dubai Now Under Construction
Tallest Building in the World - Dubai (2008)
From their website: Burj Dubai will be the world's tallest tower and the centerpiece of the Gulf regions most prestigious urban development to date. Burj Dubai will radiate out in a series of ellipses from the sky breaking tower encompassing residential, commercial, hotel, entertainment, and the world largest shopping mall. The Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architectural consultants have drawn their inspiration from the historical influences of the Gulf. Petronas Towers in Malaysia (452 metres) and the Chicago's Sears Tower (442 meters) are currently the world's highest man made towers. Recently Shanghai, China and the New York World Trade Centre have announced plans to exceed these records, though Burj Dubai, with an anticipated completion date of 2008, will beat all records.
World Map of Places You've Been
World Places I've Traveled
This world map shows places I've visited over the last 30 years. Hopefully, I'll be adding more red in the next few decades. You can create your own map, then add it to your blog or website by visiting:
create your own visited country map
Taipei 101
Taipei 101 Tower - World's Tallest
After a rather long afternoon with your friends chowing down enormous platters of Chinese deli, you might find yourself out of room, and need emerg baskets to "take home" your mungshu. No problem, since the Tai government gives note of take-away fevor and erected fine monument to Chinese take-out: a building composed of Chinese take-out boxes.
The mind almost reels about the marketing scenario. Let's do the world's tallest building here in Taipei and let's make it Chinese take-out boxes. Why not? So they did.
Mysterious Discovery
Mysterious Human Skeleton Discovered in Saudi Arabia
Recent gas exploration activity in the south east region of the Arabian desert uncovered a skeletal remains of a human of phenomenal size. This region of the Arabian desert is called the Empty Quarter, or in Arabic, 'Rab-Ul-Khalee'. The discovery was made by the Aramco Exploration team. As God states in the Quran that He had created people of phenomenal size the like of which He has not created since. These were the people of Aad where Prophet Hud was sent. They were very tall, big, and very powerful, such that they could put their arms around a tree trunk and uproot it. Later these people, who were given all the power, turned against God and the Prophet and transgressed beyond all boundaries set by God. As a result they were destroyed.
Ulema's of Saudi Arabia believe these to be the remains of the people of Aad. Saudi Military has secured the whole area and no one is allowed to enter except the ARAMCO personnel. It has been kept in secrecy, but a military helicopter took some pictures from the air and one of the pictures leaked out into the internet in Saudi Arabia. See the attachment and note the size of the two men standing in the picture in comparison to the size of the skeleton.
A Bridge from Italy to Sicily
Messina Bridge
Messina Bridge Flash Movie from PBS
The link above leads to a short flash program posted on the PBS website.
Movies Filmed in Thailand
Thailand Handbook by Carl Parkes
Movies Filmed in Thailand
More than 100 films and documentaries were shot in Thailand over the last few decades, primarily Vietnam War pictures which substituted Thailand topography for Vietnam's.
Over the years, Thailand has seen the likes of Sylvester Stallone in Rambo III, Jean Claude Van Damme in Kick Boxer, and erotic classics such as Emmanuelle in Bangkok, as well as lighter fare starring Mel Gibson, Michael J. Fox, and Disney's Dumbo. Recent efforts include a James Bond flick, Anna and the King, and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach.
Chang (1927)
Although filmmakers Ernest Schoedsack and Merian Cooper will be forever associated with their 1933 classic King Kong, the inventive pair accomplished some of their greatest work with their depiction of Siamese peasant life near Nan. Filmed on location, Chang ("Elephant") established a cinematic blueprint for King Kong, complete with roaming jungle cats and marauding herds of elephants.
Anna and the King of Siam (1946)
The original film account of King Mongkut (Rex Harrison) and his nanny (Irene Dunne) wasn't filmed in Thailand but the staging is reasonably authentic, except for the Balinese gong kebayar gamelan style of music which didn't exist until the 20th century.
The King and I (1956)
Though Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr never left the Hollywood soundstage, the costumes and set designs look quite accurate, except for the Japanese lantern in the garden. Based on the fictional life of a former governess, The King and I was immediately banned in Thailand due to Brynner's unfavorable portrayal of King Mongkut, one of the nation's most honored and accomplished rulers.
Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
The classic story of Phileas Fogg and company includes a shot of David Niven as he watches the royal barges on the Chao Praya in Bangkok.
The Ugly American (1963)
After a visit to Southeast Asia in 1958, Marlon Brando agreed to star in this film based on the controversial William Lederer novel about diplomatic intrigue and anti-American sentiments in the mythical country of Sarkhan. Brando, ever the political idealist, portrayed a quaintly simplistic American ambassador who struggles against the rising tide of communism. The well-intended film included extensive footage of Bangkok, the Thai countryside, and historic temples, but the complex political issues and obscurity of the region doomed it to commercial failure.
The Man With The Golden Gun (1973)
Many of the brilliant chase scenes in this James Bond flick were filmed in Phangnga Bay, near Phuket in southern Thailand. Soon afterward, one of the towering limestone pinnacles was dubbed "James Bond Rock" by local tour promoters, a clever marketing ploy still used some 25 years after the film's release. The film also includes a wild car chase down an almost rural Sukumvit Road in Bangkok, an impossible feat today given the bone-crushing traffic.
Emmanuelle in Bangkok (1976)
A French softcore romp largely staged in Bangkok with endless, mindless, jerky, poorly focused shots of Thai kids playing in the Bangkok klongs.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Most of the hair-raising river scenes in this Vietnam War classic were filmed on the River Kwai near the town of Kanchanaburi. The bar scenes might also look familiar since most were shot inside the Mississippi Queen on Patpong Road in Bangkok. Deer Hunter won a slew of Academy Awards and started the mania for Vietnam-era films.
Uncommon Valor (1983)
Gene Hackman, Robert Stack, and Patrick Swayze (in one of early roles) tell about Vietnam Vets who return to rescue imprisoned comrades held captive on some dusty hill in Thailand.
The Killing Fields (1984)
This production, based on Sydney Schanberg's The Life and Death of Dith Pran, won several Academy Awards for its powerful depiction of the Cambodian holocaust. Most of the exterior scenes were shot in Thailand, including footage of Hua Hin's Railway Hotel, which doubled as the correspondent's hotel in war-torn Phnom Penh. Bangkok, Patpong Road, and Bang Tao Beach on Phuket were also used as backdrops. Finally, the elegant old Government House in Phuket town served as a replica of the French Embassy in Phnom Penh.
Volunteers (1985)
This comedy-adventure flick about the American Peace Corps was filmed in Bangkok and around Mae Hong Son. Despite the leading roles of Tom Hanks and John Candy, Volunteers was quickly relegated to video rentals.
Platoon (1987)
This film garnered Oliver Stone an Academy Award for Best Director of the Year, and Willem Dafoe a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Street scenes of old Saigon were re-created by constructing fiberglass replicas of old blue-and-yellow Renault taxis. Chinese-Thai extras were hired to ensure a Vietnamese look.
Swimming to Cambodia (1987)
Spalding Gray, San Francisco's famed but now hated monologist (he prefers New York), used his experiences as an actor in the filming of The Killing Fields to explore the social and political undercurrents of contemporary Southeast Asia. Jonathan Demme directed.
Good Morning Vietnam (1987)
Hollywood's first Vietnam War comedy starred Robin Williams as a zany disc jockey who entertains troops via the American Forces Radio Service. The atmosphere of old Saigon was successfully re-created by production designers who arrived months in advance to scout locations and work on elaborate transformations, such as turning a small food store into the Minh Ngoc GI Bar, complete with American flags and flashing jukebox. Most of the Saigon street scenes were filmed along Rajadamnern Avenue. Director Barry Levinson sensibly used Bangkok's notorious Patpong Road as the substitute for Saigon's equally notorious brothel district along Tu Do Street.
Rambo III (1988)
This film begins with our hero, played by Sylvester Stallone, meditating about the truths of life in a Thai monastery; he quickly decides to chuck the robes and do battle with the Soviets in Central Asia. The opening scenes were filmed in Bangkok and the meditation sessions at Wat Buddhaphat, a hillside temple about one hour southeast of Chiang Mai, near the weaving village of Pasang.
Air America (1990)
This MASH rehash centers around a pair of wild and crazy U.S. pilots--played by Mel Gibson and Robert Downey, Jr.--working for Air America, the secret airline operated by the CIA out of Laos during the Vietnam War. Air America was largely filmed around Mae Hong Son in northern Thailand, including a dramatic scene of an elephant being airlifted over the Burmese-style temples around Chang Khom Lake.
Casualties of War (1991)
The war drama, directed by Brian De Palma and starring Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn, was filmed in Kanchanaburi and on the island of Phuket.
The Good Woman of Bangkok (1991)
Loosely based on Bertolt Brecht's "The Good Women of Szechuan," this documentary features a 25-year-old prostitute named Aoi, who made the confessional in exchange for enough cash to quit her job and buy a farm in her old village. Any traveler foolish enough to fall for a Thai prostitute should see this film.
Heaven and Earth (1993)
Oliver Stone's final Vietnam War film approaches the conflict from the viewpoint of a Vietnamese woman who sympathizes with the communist cause but loves an American GI. The film was shot in Vietnam and around Phangnga Bay near Phuket in southern Thailand.
Street Fighter (1994)
Jean Claude Van Damme makes his first appearance in Thailand in this hokey film, based on a video game, which is plagued with cheesy effects and costumes cloned from Nazi and sci-fi films.
Men of War (1994)
Starring Swedish-born Dolph Lundgren, this film about hardened mercenaries and innocent natives was mostly filmed on Ao Nang Beach and in Khao Phanom Bencha National Park near Krabi. The "Cavern of the Dead" was created inside the caves of Suan Si Nakawan National Park near Phangnga; the boxing scenes were staged in Bangkok.
Day of Reckoning (1994)
A flash-in-the-pan dirge with rogue travel guide Fred Dyer touring around Bangkok with a brief visit to the phallic shrine in the back yard of the Hilton International.
Operation Dumbo Drop (1995)
This Walt Disney film about elephants and their mahouts was filmed over a two-month period in Mae Hong Son, Kanchanaburi, Chiang Mai, and Lopburi. Although the film starred Ray Liotta and Danny Glover, the real star was Pathet Thai, an elephant born in Thailand, raised in the United States, and returned to Thailand to assume the lead role as Dumbo.
The Quest (1995)
Roger Moore, star of the 1973 James Bond film, returns to Thailand to play a villain opposite Jean Claude Van Damme. The Belgian kickboxer was apparently was an old Thailand fan, as he married Darry Lapier at the Bangkok Regent Hotel in 1994.
Mortal Combat (1995)
This flick and its 1997 follow-up were largely filmed in Bangkok and on the beaches near Krabi.
Cutthroat Island (1995)
A big budget Hollywood blockbuster which did even worse in box office receipts that The Quest and Mortal Combat despite the drawing power of Hollywood stars Matthew Modine and Geena Davis. Geena pouts while the area around Krabi substitutes for the Caribbean, including some great shots of the ship inside Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi--the same wonderful location where Leonardo DiCaprio wandered aimlessly in The Beach.
Street Fighter (1996)
Jean Claude Van dam returns to Bangkok to wage fisticuffs on an Asian despot.
The Phantom (1996)
Billy Zane (the evil husband in Titanic) as the Man in Purple Tights and Treat Williams as Xander Drax can't rescue the early half of this film lensed in Thailand, though the latter half in New York features some nifty costumes from the 1930s.
Mortal Combat II (1997)
The Japanese robot action craze returned to Thailand with several scenes filmed in Ayuthaya, the ancient capital. After its release, some Thais protested the apparent sacrilegious desecration of the 600-year old temples of Ayuthaya. Actually, the problem was that the plywood and styrofoam sets back in Hollywood were so realistic that it appeared on screen that Ayuthaya was going up in smoke.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and Michelle Yeoh tear up the streets of Bangkok, including some clips of the soaring Baiyoke Tower (tallest building in town) and a motorcycle chase which almost ended the career of Ms. Yeoh. Although these scenes supposedly took place in Vietnam, sharp-eyed viewers will find a significant amount to Thai script and a Thai flag waving from a mast in the harbor. Other goofs include the impossibility of helicopters hovering in place with their rotors tilted forward (a cool effect, but beyond the laws of physics) and the fact that Bond's car is actually a BMW 740i V8 and not a 750i V12.
Return to Paradise(1998)
This highly acclaimed but largely ignored film revolves around two friends who must choose whether to help a third friend who was arrested in Malaysia for drug possession, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Anne Heche. The drug connection banned filming in Malaysia but areas around Krabi in southern Thailand substituted for the Malaysian prison.
Brokedown Palace (1999)
Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale are arrested for drug smuggling while vacationing in Thailand.
Anna and the King (1999)
The third cinematic retelling of the highly inaccurate relationship between Anna and King Mongkut, one of the most highly revered of all Thai kings. Although 20th Century Fox attempted to film in the country, the sets were constructed in Malaysia just outside Kuala Lumpur near a luxury golf course. Other scenes were filmed near Ipoh and on Penang Island. Despite major revisions provided by the filmmakers, the film was banned in Thailand, but Thais are permitted to view the controversial film on video or DVD. Anna was played by Jody Foster; King Mongkut by Chow Yun Fat.
The Beach (2000)
The biggest film to be lensed in Thailand since the 1973 James Bond flick, The Man with the Golden Gun, starred Leonardo DiCaprio and was directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting.) The Beach caused a national uproar after the Fox production company asked to use Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi as a central film set, planting over 100 coconut trees to enhance the atmosphere of the film, apparently an environmental assault on the pristine atmosphere of southern Thailand (cough, cough). Despite the protests, the film was completed in mid-1999 with additional scenes filmed at the On On Hotel in Phuket Town and at a waterfall in Khao Yai National Park. The film was based on an award-winning novel by British author Alex Garland and tells the story of a young backpacker who discovers an Edenic beach and takes up residence, only to ruin the island paradise. Beautiful Maya Bay was featured on the cover of the second edition of Thailand Handbook.
Movies Filmed in the Philippines
Philippines Handbook by Carl Parkes
MOVIES FILMED IN THE PHILIPPINES
Hollywood has gone to the Philippines many times to use the tropical scenery as the setting for movies based on the era of the Vietnam War.
Too Late the Hero
Cliff Robertson, Michael Caine, and Toshiro Mifune star in this 1970 release shot in Boracay in the late 1960s. A rare chance to see the Philippine's most famous island without all the guesthouses, hotels, condominiums, and golf courses.
Apocalypse Now
The helicopter scenes in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 masterpiece were filmed at Balera Bay, while the climactic explosion of Kurtz's Cambodian temple was staged on the riverbanks near Pagsanhan Falls. Tribal dance scenes were performed by the Ifugaos of Banaue. Coppola's ex-wife subsequently wrote an intriguing book about their problems with typhoons and clashing personalities.
Platoon
Most of this Academy Award-winning film was filmed in the Philippines.
An Officer and a Gentleman
Richard Gere and Debra Winger star in this 1982 love story whose early parts were filmed in Olongapo.
The Year of Living Dangerously
One of the best films about contemporary politics in the region was filmed in the Philippines in 1983 after Indonesian authorities refused to allow the Australian director to complete the film on location.
Missing in Action
All of the Missing in Action films starring Chuck Norris were filmed in the Philippines from 1984-1988.
Born On The Fourth Of July
Ron Kovic's autobiographical novel was largely filmed in the northern Philippine province of Ilocos Norte. While there in 1989, director Oliver Stone and star Tom Cruise stayed in the Fort Ilocandia Resort Hotel, built by the Marcoses to house guests for their 1983 wedding of daughter Irene. Stone summed it up: "I have been all over the Far East, and the Philippines has the most natural wonders. The people give their hearts to you; it's like being in the old pirate country in the Caribbean."
Fortunes of War
Set in Thailand and Cambodia but actually shot in the Philippines at Subic Bay in 1994 with a cameo appearance by Martin Sheen.
Chinese Food Conundrum
Alice at the Dim Sum Palace
Chinese food is apparently a different animal between San Francisco and the hinterlands of China, where most of the residents have no clue about what is served on Grant and Jackson.
A Guide to Chinese Takeout Menus
Associated Press
Zuo Kuanxun wrinkles his face in skepticism, and you can hardly blame him. A foreign visitor has appeared without warning to inform him that his great-great-great grandfather - battlefield hero and crusher of rebellions against the imperial Qing court - is renowned on restaurant menus across the sea. Gen. Zuo Zongtang, a hometown legend in his south-central province of China, was the fiercest of 19th-century warriors. Yet today, most of America associates the late military strategist with a chicken. And a tasty one at that.
Odds are you know him as General Tso, General Chao, General Zhou, even General Ching - namesake of the succulent, sweet-spicy chunks of dark-meat chicken that features in most every Chinese restaurant in America but is almost entirely unknown in China itself. General Tso/Zuo himself, however, is well known - decidedly real and born in 1812 in this tiny valley in Hunan province. And a bit of detective work turns up the fact that, indeed, there is an obscure Hunan chicken recipe that bears his name - though no one can say quite how that happened.
"We have chickens here. We make chicken. But it's nothing special," says Zuo, sitting in the shade of his open-front house a few yards from the general's old homestead. As he speaks, a hen wanders in. "You say millions of Americans are familiar with our ancestor?" His son, Zuo Jingyou, offers this: "It's been forgotten here. We Zuos have all heard stories about it. But did it come from him? We don't know."
Chinese food in the United States is full of such anomalies. Dishes that Americans consider takeout-joint stalwarts leave mainland Chinese scratching their heads. Chop suey? Describe it to anyone across the land and you get blank looks. Lake Tungting shrimp? There is a Lake Tungting - or Dongting, as they spell it - here in Hunan, and it does have big shrimp, but locals say it's not a recipe per se.
Duck sauce? It's brown and made with plums - nothing like that translucent orange stuff that's apparently neither for, nor made of, duck. In the Chinese capital, the sauce is served with julienned scallions and cucumber to be placed on wrap-up pancakes over succulent Beijing duck.
Don't even ask about fortune cookies. Though some Chinese vaguely remember a grandparent putting a secret message in a holiday cake, the notion of finding an aphorism like "Yesterday's enemy is tomorrow's ally" tucked inside one's dessert is utterly alien here.
"A Confucian saying inside a cookie? I've never heard of it, but it doesn't sound like a bad idea," says Chen Huanshun, a cooking teacher at the Beijing Economic and Trade Senior Technical School. "But," he sniffs, "putting a piece of paper inside a baked good doesn't sound too sanitary."
Why the differences? The Chinese food that first made an impression on Americans came from the south, because the earliest immigrants to the United States were Cantonese, from around Guangzhou near Hong Kong. Their less spicy cuisine became the standard for a generation of chow mein houses.
Among Cantonese contributions: chow mein (fried noodles), moo goo gai pan (mushrooms and chicken slices) and the universally loved wonton (literally, "swallowing clouds").
In the 1970s and 1980s, a new wave of immigrants with roots in Hunan and Sichuan (think "Szechwan") provinces - both homes to famous cuisines noted for their fragrant, spicy flavorings - opened restaurants in U.S. cities. But in case American palates weren't ready for such intricate fare, traditional recipes were modified to fit the market.
That happened with kungpao chicken, a fiery Sichuan dish that was tamed - some would say dumbed down - for an American audience. "Every single family in Sichuan probably knows how to make it," says Yang Jianping, a taxi driver in Chengdu, the province's capital city. Then he gets animated. "I'll tell you right now: I've never been to America, but I know that Sichuan food there is nothing like here. You have your tastes, we have ours," Yang says. "But I would probably take a bite of American kungpao chicken and spit it out."
One dish that emerged from the pack was General Tso's chicken. Though the recipe remains quite malleable - in some American restaurants the chicken is sweet and unbreaded, in others spicy or batter-fried - it was a hit and remains on virtually every American Chinese restaurant's list of "chef's specials." This is somewhat bewildering to folks in the place that the general called home.
"You're telling me there's a chicken dish named in his memory?" says Geng Ermao, proprietress of a popular family-style restaurant in Changsha, the provincial capital. Her face wrinkles. "You say Americans who eat Chinese food are familiar with his name? I don't know of it, and you'd think I'd know."
Head north from Changsha, drive for about an hour and you'll reach Wenjialong, a verdant valley of tucked-away farms and small houses. Here, living quiet lives, are the remaining descendants of the general, who died in 1885. Zuo Rensi, another great-great-great grandson, opens the decaying gate of his ancestor's courtyard home and leads visitors quietly into what was once the kitchen. He speaks quietly of the dish known here as "Zuo gongji," or "Zuo's rooster."
"I don't know if he created the dish or it was made for him," Zuo says. "But we all know about it. No one knows how to make it anymore, though." Aside from his formidable military career - including campaigns to crush the famed Taiping Rebellion and an uprising in the predominantly Muslim western region of Xinjiang - Zuo was known for his belief that China needed to modernize to survive. His method: using tried-and-true Western innovations to improve upon Chinese traditions.
This is instructive when considering the global journey of General Tso's chicken. In a recent random sampling of more than a dozen restaurants in Hunan province, only one - near Changsha's main train station - offered Zuo's rooster on the menu.
What arrived was a melancholy mix of vegetables, shallots and greasy, scrawny pieces of chicken studded with perilous slivers of bone - a far cry from the juicy, boneless poultry chunks familiar to Americans. "Chinese are going all over the world, and they're taking their recipes with them. It can only get better and more professional," says Chen, the cooking-school instructor.
Usually, though, the Chinese version of Chinese food is far tastier than its American imitation. Not this time. And there's not a Zuo in town who can explain why. "All the Zuos who could leave here left. Maybe they took it with them," says Zuo Jingyou, who doubts he will ever make it to America to sample the descendant of his ancestor's eponymous meal. "I don't know the story of the dish. I really wish I did."
Travel Quotes from Southeast Asia Handbook
SE Asia Handbook by Carl Parkes
To many people holidays are not voyages of discovery, but a ritual of reassurance.
--Philip Adams, Australian Age
Travel broadens the mind.
--Anonymous
Three hundred years in a convent and fifty years in Hollywood.
--Anonymous
Though an airplane is not the ideal place to really think, to reassess or reevaluate, it is a great place to have the illusion of doing so, and often the illusion will suffice.
--Shana Alexander
Never journey without something to eat in your pocket. If only to throw to dogs when attacked.
--E.S. Bates
There are two kinds of travel--first class and with children.
--Robert Benchley
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.
--William Blake
The traveler is active and strenuously searches for people, adventure and experience. The tourist is passive and waits for things to happen.
--Daniel J. Boorstein
In traveling: a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.
--James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson
Countries, like people, are loved for their failings.
--F. Yeats Brown, Bengal Lancer
"Are you a god?" they asked.
"No."
"An Angel?"
"No."
"A saint?"
"No."
"Then, what are you?"
Buddha answered, "I am awake."
--Buddha
Of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Home, man feels once more happy.
--Richard Burton, Journal
To travel in Europe is to assume a foreseen inheritance; in Islam, to inspect that of a close and familiar cousin. But to travel in farther Asia is to discover a novelty previously unsuspected and unimaginable.
--Lord Byron
Every man carries within himself a world made up of all that he has seen and loved; and it is to this world that he returns incessantly, though he may pass through, and seem to inhabit, a world quite foreign to it.
--Chateaubriand, Voyage en Italie
For some ill-defined reason, lovers have a particular penchant for travelling, perhaps in the hope that by exchanging backdrops for that of the unknown, those fleeting dreams will be retained a little longer.
--Carole Chester
I shall always be glad to have seen it--for the same reason Papa gave for being glad to have seen Lisbon--namely, that it will be unnecessary ever to see it again.
--Winston Churchill
The glamour of the East had cast its spell upon him; the mystery of lands in which no white man had set foot since the beginning of things had fired his imagination; the itch of travel was upon him, goading him to restlessness.
--Hugh Clifford, The Story of Exploration
I prefer mythology to history because history starts from the truth and goes towards lies and mythology starts from lies--fantasy--and goes toward truth.
--Jean Cocteau
There are only three things which make life worth living: to be writing a tolerably good book, to be in a dinner party for six, and to be traveling south with someone whom your conscience permits you to love.
--Cyril Connolly, A Romantic Friendship
I believe if I were to one day accept a religion, it would be of Buddhism. No other faith seems to offer such an eloquent expression of hope and beauty with its array of imagery, fashioned seemingly by devoted geniuses of a fantasy world.
--Joseph Conrad, The Shadow Line
Some men go skimming over the years of existence to sink gently into a placid grave, ignorant of life to the last, without ever having been made to see all it may contain of perfidy, of violence, and of terror.
--Joseph Conrad
Everybody in the world is a little mad.
--Joseph Conrad, The Shadow Line
Giant Bear Shot in Alaska
Bearly Believable
This photo has been circulating around the net for ages, but perhaps a few of you haven't seen it yet. Here's some background I borrowed from Hoax or Fraud or Urban Legends. I forget.
How would you like for this monster to walk up on you in the woods? Check out the size of the paw in relation to the guy's head!!! This bear was killed down on Hitchenbrook Island by an airman stationed at Elmendorf. The bear measured 12' 6" and was estimated at over 1600lbs. The guy was walking to his hunting area and the bear stood up only 35 yards away. The bear dropped down and went straight for him. He emptied his gun and the bear fell 10 yards from him.
The attached picture is of a guy who works for the forest service in Alaska. He was out deer hunting. A large...large world record Grizzly bear charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy unloaded a 7mm Mag Semi-auto into the bear and it dropped a few feet from him. The thing was still alive so he reloaded and capped it in the head. It was over one thousand six hundred pounds, 12 feet 6 inches high at the shoulder. It's a world record. The bear had killed a couple of other people. Of course, the game department did not let him keep it. Think about it. This thing on its hind legs could walk up to the average single story house and could look on the roof at eye level.
Alabama Hog or Hoax?
Alabama Hog Story
I know a few people who live in Alabama (travel writers in Burmingham), and they just love to tell tall stories and pull the leg of outsiders. So I'd take the photograph with a grain of salt, but congrats to the local denizens for their sense of creativity.
ALAPAHA, Ga. (AP)
With the local legend of Hogzilla spreading worldwide, residents of this tiny Georgia town have decided to feature the prodigious porker in their annual festival. Plantation owner Ken Holyoak said one of his hunting guides shot the 12-foot-long wild hog in June, but few actually saw it before it was buried. Besides the few witnesses, the only proof is a photo showing the guide with the beast dangling from a strap.
Holyoak claims the hog weighed 1,000 pounds and had 9-inch tusks. Now, residents plan to include a Hogzilla float, a Hogzilla informational booth and Hogzilla T-shirts in Alapaha's festival in November.
"We're going hog wild," said Darrell Jernigan of Jernigan's Farm Supply.
The festival's previous themes include God Bless America, Saluting Our Firemen, and Our Indian Heritage. Residents around town smile when strangers ask them about the massive hog. "Some say it's like fishing,"' Elizabeth Moore said. "The more you tell the story, the bigger the fish gets and the more you tell the story about Hogzilla, the bigger the hog gets."
Feral hogs, popularly known as wild hogs, are domestic hogs that escaped from farms and began living off the land. Holyoak said his plantation's previous record was a 695-pound hog shot several years ago.
Singapore Remembered
Singapore Handbook
DISSIDENTS IN SINGAPORE
Carl Parkes
Singapore Handbook, 1st edition
Joining an opposition party or running in elections against the PAP can be a risky career move as shown by the stories below.
Chia Thye Poh
Singapore’s original political dissident and near-holder of world’s record for political detention is former assemblyman and university lecturer, Chia Thye Poh, who was held in detention from 1966 to 1989, a 23-year stretch exceeded only by that of Nelson Mandela.
Chia had been a lecturer at Singapore’s Nanyang University and an opposition member of Parliament representing the now defunct Barisan Socialis party. In October 1966 Chia resigned his parliamentary seat to protest the detention of other Barisan legislators and was arrested three weeks later under Singapore’s Internal Security Act. Chia was held without formal charge or a trial for 22 years in Whitley Road Detention Centre. When the Internal Security Department (ISD) offered to release him on condition that he “give a public undertaking renouncing the use of force and terror to overthrow the government,” Chia refused on the grounds that he never advocated violence or been a member of the communist party.
Chia was finally released from prison in 1989 under the condition that he remain confined on the tourist resort island of Sentosa, where he worked in a converted souvenir stand as assistant curator of the museum. Some say he his release from prison a few weeks before Nelson Mandela’s release was timed so that Singapore could avoid the dubious distinction of having the world’s longest serving political prisoner. An unapologetic Chia was later sent home and now lives with his father but is forbidden to be employed, travel abroad, issue public statements, or associate with other former detainees without ISD approval.
J.B. Jeyaretnam
Singapore’s most defiant opposition figure is Sri Lankan-born attorney Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam who, during the mid-1980s, claimed the citizens of Singapore suffered from the authoritarian and paternalistic behavior of Lee's government. Perhaps alarmed by the decline in PAP popularity and the election of J.B. Jeyaretnam to Parliament in 1981 as the first opposition candidate in over a decade, the government introduced a series of constitutional amendments and disciplinary measures aimed at troublesome politicians. Punitive lawsuits eventually bankrupted the cash-poor Workers Party and put Jeyaretnam on trial where he was denied legal council, convicted, stripped of his parliamentary position, banned from contesting future elections, and disbarred from legal practice.
Jeyaretnam's appeal to the Privy Council in London--a right generally granted all citizens of British Commonwealth nations--ruled that he and his co-accused had suffered “grievous injustice” and were “fined, imprisoned and publicly disgraced of offenses of which they were not guilty.” After another incident with Francis Seow, the government passed legislation which prohibited the right of appeal to the Privy Council, a British institution which the ruling party portrayed as an unnecessary legacy of colonialism.
Jeyaretnam later withdrew his appeal before the Singapore Court of Appeals for parliamentary reinstatement and lost a US$232,723 defamation suit to former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Jeyaretnam was later sued by the Straits Times which forced him back into bankruptcy court and threatened to end his colorful political career. He lost the case in late 1994 and was ordered to pay the Straits Times almost US$100,000.
Jeyaretnam and his Worker’s Party has lost ground to younger opposition parties such as the Singapore Democratic Party which won three parliamentary seats in the 1991 general elections. Although Jeyaretnam has returned to legal practice, he has lost all subsequent parliamentary elections after a 10-year forced hiatus from politics.
Vincent Cheng and the Marxist Conspiracy
Although Vincent Cheng has never served in a political position, mention must be made of the 1987 arrest of 22 people involved in what the government called a “Marxist conspiracy” to overthrow the government. Among the arrested were Catholic Church social workers, employees of Jeyaretnam's Workers Party newspaper, and members of a theatrical company called Third Stage. The government claimed the two leaders of the Marxist conspiracy were Vincent Cheng, a Catholic Church activist, and Tan Wah Piow, a former student leader who, according to the government, had been attempting to overthrow the Singapore government since attending law school in Oxford.
Reaction to the arrests was disbelief since few observers thought it possible that this loose collection of lawyers, Christian activists, and theatrical performers comprised some sort of Marxist conspiracy against the Singapore government. Thirty-nine members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter condemning the arrests and the subsequent detentions of the accused without trial.
Those arrested were interrogated and then paraded before the media in an orchestrated campaign to convince the public of their guilt, while the Straits Times presented accusations made by the Ministry of Home Affairs as fact rather than allegation. Amnesty International claimed that both psychological and physical torture were used to extract the confessions of the political detainees. All but one of the suspects were eventually set free, but eight were re-arrested after signing a statement saying that their confessions had been obtained after beatings, intimidation, and deceit.
Vincent Cheng remained under ISD house arrest until 1995 when restrictions were finally lifted.
Francis Seow
Another sad case of government actions against political activists is Francis Seow, a former solicitor general and ex-president of Singapore's Law Society who harshly criticized the government while representing the suspects in “Marxist conspiracy” described above. The government responded by arresting Seow as a threat to national security and placing him under the control of the Internal Security Department, a secret police agency which taps phones, searches mail, and has the power to detain suspects without trail under the terms of the Internal Security Act. Seow, accused of plotting with Americans to interfere in Singapore’s internal affairs, was held for 72 days while the ISD interrogated his about his political beliefs, sources of income, and possible financial support from the American government.
The crisis peaked when the Singapore government demanded that Mason Hendrickson, a U.S. Embassy employee, be removed from his Singapore post for interfering in domestic politics and secretly urging lawyers such as Seow to run in general elections. The U.S. government denied the charges and, in response, ordered the expulsion of a Singaporean envoy from Washington.
Soon after his release from ISA detention, Seow further infuriated the government by announcing his plans to run as an opposition candidate in the upcoming election. Seow won a non-constituency parliamentary seat. The government responded by filing six counts of tax evasion against Seow, who promptly fled the country for the United States. Seow was subsequently convicted of tax evasion in absentia and disqualified from his seat in Parliament. Fearing that Seow would appeal to the Privy Council and still angry with the earlier success of Jeyeratnam , the government abolished the defendant's right of habeas corpus and right of final appeal to the Privy Council.
Rather than returning to Singapore, Seow accepted a fellowship at Yale University and now resides in the United States. Seow authored an account of his experiences in To Catch a Tartar: A Dissident in Lee Kuan Yew’s Prison. The book, as you might imagine, is not sold in Singapore but is widely available in Malaysia.
Chee Soon Juan
Dr. Chee, a neuropsychologist and former lecturer at the National University of Singapore, is one of the few individuals in Singapore who continues to challenge the ruling party in his position of head of the Singapore Democratic Party.
Chee was educated in the United States where he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in 1990 before returning to Singapore to work in the Department of Social Work and Psychology at the National University of Singapore. In 1992, Chee joined the Singapore Democratic Party and ran for prime minister against Goh Chok Tong, the former prime minister and major figure within the ruling party. Chee even sought public assurances from Prime Minister Goh that there would be no hard feelings if he opposed him in the elections.
Just months after losing the election to Goh, Chee was fired by the university on charges that he had spent US$138 of university research funds to ship his wife's doctoral thesis to Pennsylvania State University. Chee insisted that the reimbursement voucher had been signed by Dr. Vasoo, the head of the department and a PAP member of Parliament. Vasoo presented an altered voucher but Chee was in a hopeless position. After he lost his job at the university, Chee continued to insist that his dismissal was politically motivated. For these remarks, Chee was sued for libel by Dr. Vasoo and two other senior members of the department.
Rather than settle out of court, Chee sold his house to finance his defense but lost the case and was forced to pay the almost $300,000 to the litigants.
His problems did not end there. Back in private psychology practice, Chee finds most doctors unwilling to refer patients and most of his friends have abandoned him out of fear of reprisal. Yet Chee continues to stand up to the government. His first book, Dare To Change, argues that authoritarian forms of government will ultimately fail as democracy, free speech, and individual rights spread across Asia. Chee later wrote Singapore My Home Too. Both books receive limited distribution in Singapore.
Chee stirred up more controversy in September 1995 when he delivered a message about the state of Singapore at Williams College in Massachusetts. Parliament censured Chee two months later on the grounds that he had allegedly failed to contradict attacks on the judiciary made by Chee’s fellow panelists, dissident Francis Seow and academic Christopher Lingle.
Chee found himself in hot water again in August 1996 after he accepted an offer to debate the government on political issues and the rising costs of public health care. During the debate, Chee misquoted some statistics which infuriated the PAP and brought charges of parliamentary contempt from the Minister of Health.
Lee Kuan Yew Speaks
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, once one of the world’s most articulate voices of freedom, had this to say in 1956 as an opposition member of Parliament: “But either we believe in democracy or we do not. If we do, then we must say categorically, without qualification, that no restraint from any democratic process, other than by ordinary law of the land, should be allowed. If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then they should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free publication. Then no law should permit those democratic processes to be set at naught. . .”
In a subsequent speech made when Singapore was part of the Malaysian federation, Lee articulated his feelings about freedom of the press and media. ”Let us get down to fundamentals. Is this an open or a closed society? Is it a society where men can preach ideas—the novel, unorthodox, heresies. . . where there is a constant contest for men’s heats and minds on the basis of what is right, of what I just, or what is in the national interest? Or is it a closed society where the mass media—the newspapers, journals, publications, TV, radio. . . feed men’s minds with a constant drone of sycophantic support for a particular orthodox philosophy?”
Thai Bar Girl ID Clues
Bangkok Nightlife PACI bar girl identification guide Thai bar girl identification guide. Very funny stuff from a Bangkok-based website called www.mangosauce.com
Saturday, May 07, 2005
World Geography Quiz
World Geography Quiz
This is a fun game, testing your knowledge of countries around the world. I went in as Azerbijan and scored 7 out of 10, but those pesky countries in Africa were my downfall. Guinea? Malawi? At least I scored correctly on Cambodia and Belgium.
World Geography Quiz
SARS Chicken Flu Cat Protection
Kitty With SARS Mask
Scientists have recently determined that it is possible for SARS to jump from chickens to cats, and so itsy-bitsy, very cute little masks are now all the rage with concerned cat lovers from Hong Kong to Singapore.
Moon Landing Faked?
Moon Landing 1
Heroic images or NASA fraud? At last we have the conclusive proof! The image above clearly shows the supposed 25,000 of thrust generated by the lunar lander to arrest its descent. Yet in the image below, where is the giant crater this would have created? Looks like the complex web of NASA lies is about to unravel!
Moon Landing 2
Moon Landing 3
Another apparently inspirational image from the NASA archive. All seems fine at first but notice the numerous directions in which the shadows are falling (marked with arrows). This indicates that the image is probably composed of several images taken at different times (probably in a top secret studio guarded by specially trained aliens working as government agents) and joined together using advanced technology NASA always denies existed at the time. This is the photographic equivalent of an automotive "cut-and-shut" job. If this image was your car, you wouldn't trust it take you to the end of your road without breaking in half!
Moon Landing 4
Not much wrong with this picture you may think. Yet, by thinking that, you would just become yet another of NASA's conspiracy victims. Firstly, despite the absence of an atmosphere, no stars can be seen in the sky. Secondly, the interior of the shopping basket can clearly be seen when all areas in shadow should be pitch black due to the absence of air molecules. Nice try NASA but we are not fooled that easily!
Moon Landing 5
Just way too many things wrong with this picture! Notice the absence of stars again. The arrows indicate the various directions in which shadows are falling, again showing evidence of inconsistent scene illumination. Yet there is something even more obviously wrong with this picture. If the length of the lower support column of the lunar lander was 4 feet tall, this would indicate that the astronaut was over 8 feet tall, which none of the astronauts were. Another careless mistake from NASA.
Moon Landing 6
Oh yes NASA, it's all very well adding stars on this picture just to make us realise how wrong we have been. We are not fooled so easily! If we look a bit more closely, we spot the constellation of Pegasus with the planet Saturn (marked S1) clearly visible in the top left corner. Yet at the time of the mission, although Saturn appeared to be near Pegasus from Earth, from the Moon it would have appeared to be in a completely different position (marked S2). It is almost insulting to think that NASA could get away with this obvious howler!
Moon Landing 7
Well, with this image where does one begin?!Inconsistent shadows, too much ambient light and incorrect planetary positioning in the sky are all evident here. Also notice how the focal length of the camera lens has changed compared to the pictures above, even though the astronauts' Hasselblad cameras were only fitted with a single type of prime lens.
Note: The final two photos can be found Here
Controvery Over Thai Sukothai Obelisk
Thai Obelisk in Sukothai
This controversy over the origins of a stone obelisk has been going on for several decades, but the issue was recently raised again and led to more brickbats being thrown at the respected Siam Society in Bangkok. First, a story from The Daily Telegraph, then my take on the issue published several years ago in my Thailand Handbook.
The Thai Icon, The Curse, the King and I
By Sebastien Berger
A British academic is facing ritual curses, allegations of criminal defamation of two dead kings and demands for his deportation after he cast doubts on the authenticity of one of Thailand's most important cultural artifacts. The 3ft-high stone obelisk, known as 'Inscription One' and engraved on each of its four sides, is said to have been carved on the orders of King Ramkhamkaeng in 1292. It describes an idyllic kingdom based in Sukhothai, the first capital of Siam.
The obelisk 'Inscription One'
The stone is officially recognized as the first ever use of the fiendishly complicated Thai script. Last year it was added to Unesco's Memory of the World register. But Michael Wright, an author who has lived in Thailand for 45 years and lectures at Thammasat University, one of the country's top two educational institutions, believes it is a fake.
The stone was allegedly discovered in Sukhothai in 1833 by Prince Mongkut, who went on to become King Rama IV, the leader portrayed in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. But Mr Wright accuses Prince Mongkut of having the stone carved to create a historical precedent for his reforming policies. 'Inscription One is national myth number one,' he told The Telegraph yesterday.
Michael Wright
'The national mythology has it that it is the first piece of Thai writing, that the writing system was invented by King Ramkhamkaeng out of thin air, and its content describes an ideal kingdom - a Camelot. The fields are full of rice, the water is full of fish, blah, blah, blah. 'As a piece of literature it's brilliant but to take it as history is woefully ignorant. A modern person reading it with an open mind will find almost nothing that fits the 13th century but it's almost perfect for the mid-19th century.'
The language of the inscription was generally intelligible to a modern reader, unlike genuine 13th century works, he said, and its written form was also consistent with the 19th century. Decades of nationalistic teaching under post-Second World War dictatorships, allied to a culture of deference to authority, have left their mark on the Thai psyche. So the questioning of icons is not always welcome. On top of that, Thais are fiercely protective of their royal family.
When Mr Wright and Piriya Krairiksh, the director of the Centre for Thai Literary Studies at Thammasat University, set out their theory in a Thai-language newspaper it caused outrage.
Telegraph Article on Sukothai Obelisk
And here's my take on the issue published in my Thailand Handbook:
A MYSTERY IN STONE
Thailand Handbook, 3rd Edition, Page 412
Carefully guarded inside the Sukothai National Museum is a four-sided pillar of dark stone covered with ancient inscriptions traditionally attributed to King Ramkamheng. One section relates that "Sukothai is good. There is fish in the water, rice in the fields, and the king does not levy tax on his subjects. Those who wish to trade are free to trade. The faces of the people shine bright."
Identified as Stone Inscription Number 1, the stone also provides information on city planning, Buddhist law and philosophy, and the development of Thai script. Since its discovery in 1833 by King Mongkut during his monkhood, the stone has almost single-handedly created the mythology of Sukothai and the foundation of the Thai nation.
But is it real? Since the early 1990s, Ramkamheng's reputation as the mastermind of Sukothai's cultural development has come under increasing suspicion from both Thai and Western scholars. One skeptic is Dr. Piriya Krairiksh, a history professor from Thammasart University in Bangkok who claims the stone is a fake piece of historical writing created by King Mongkut sometime between 1851 and 1855. Understandably, Thais were very unhappy with the professor's assertion and reluctant to discuss the theory that has rocked the academic world.
Piriya, however, stands by his assertion based on textual analysis: the art and architecture mentioned are not supported by archaeological and historical evidence, the author freely lifted phrases verbatim from writings of later kings, and some inscription phrases are common to late 18th-century Thai literature. On the other hand, Western archaeologists and historians such as Betty Gosling and David Wyatt still feel the puzzling aspects are not sufficient to disprove the authenticity of the inscription. While the controversy remains unresolved, the academic community continues to debate the famous stone, on which rests the fundamental concepts of early Thai history.
Pyongyang Mystery Hotel
Pyongyang North Korea Hotel
The Mad Folly of North Korea
Among the architectural curiosities of Asia, the winner of the modern age must surely be this extraordinary, failed hotel in North Korea, which I briefly discussed a few months ago, and has returned to notice from a few bloggers and websites.
The Ryugyong Hotel is, in my opinion, the single most unsettling structure ever erected by the hand of man. It's 1,082 feet tall, has 105 floors, and encloses 3.9 million square meters of floor space. And it is completely empty. It doesn't even have windows.
The North Korean government began construction of the building in 1987 at an estimated cost of $750 million, or 2% of the country's GDP. For comparison, 2% of the US GDP would be about $220 billion. Ryugyong was a massive undertaking for such a poor country.
Work was halted in 1992, and nobody knows exactly why. Some say that it was for financial reasons; the DPRK economy was a disaster even then, and 1992 was about the time that widespread famine and electricity shortages began to kick in. Others say that the building isn't structurally sound due to the use of poor-quality concrete, and that it literally cannot be completed. At one point it was rumored that the North Korean government was trying to raise foreign capital to pay for major structural renovations, so the truth might lie somewhere in between.
The Ryugyong Hotel looms over Pyongyang like some kind of slumbering bat. Something deep inside my brain tells me that the 75° angle of the hotel's outer walls is exactly the wrong angle; it says sinister, it says creepy, it says get away.
Okay, so tastes differ. I think it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up; maybe the North Koreans think it's sweet as punkin' pie. That still begs the question of why. The DPRK maintains strict control over tourists and other visitors. The Ryugyong was designed to have 3,000 rooms, but at the time it was built only a few thousand people were allowed into the country per year, and almost none of them were destined for Pyongyang. Even today, after the establishment of the Kŭmgang-san tourist region, the DPRK only sees about 130,000 tourists per year. Every single one of them could book a week-long stay in the Ryugyong and the hotel would still be significantly under capacity.
The same sense of pride that drove them to build the Ryugyong has driven the North Koreans to an almost pathological level of denial about the building. It's no longer on the city's maps. Guides claim not to know where it is. No one speaks of it. This state of affairs is made all the more surreal by the fact that the almost incomprehensibly massive Ryugyong is visible from every part of Pyongyang. It hangs over the horizon, never far out of sight. The ultimate expression of the idea of the elephant in the corner.
Shape of Days on North Korean Black Elephant
Some more commentary is provided by Cecil Adams over at this Straight Dope website, where he also talks briefly about the mad race for tall buildings in Asia and the lies told by the Malaysian government to claim their Petronas Towers as the tallest in the world - despite all the evidence that the Sears Towers were long the winners.
The North Koreans began constructing he pyramid-shaped Ryugyong in 1987, reportedly aiming for 105 stories to beat out a structure the South Koreans were building in Singapore (not Kuala Lumpur). With 3,000 rooms and an estimated cost of $750 million, the thing was strictly an ego trip for North Korea's rulers--Pyongyang's few existing hotels were, and are, virtually empty. In 1991, some time after the Ryugyong had been topped out, work halted for unknown reasons, though "out of money" would be a good guess. The 3.9-million-square-foot concrete structure is lit up at night, at least in propaganda pictures, but is thought to be crumbling.
Cecil Adams on the Ryugyong Hotel
Travel Quotes from Southeast Asia Handbook
Four Kinds of Farangs
Every man carries within himself a world made up of all that he has seen and loved; and it is to this world that he returns incessantly, though he may pass through, and seem to inhabit, a world quite foreign to it.
--Chateaubriand, Voyage en Italie
For some ill-defined reason, lovers have a particular penchant for travelling, perhaps in the hope that by exchanging backdrops for that of the unknown, those fleeting dreams will be retained a little longer.
--Carole Chester
I shall always be glad to have seen it--for the same reason Papa gave for being glad to have seen Lisbon--namely, that it will be unnecessary ever to see it again.
--Winston Churchill
The glamour of the East had cast its spell upon him; the mystery of lands in which no white man had set foot since the beginning of things had fired his imagination; the itch of travel was upon him, goading him to restlessness.
--Hugh Clifford, The Story of Exploration
I prefer mythology to history because history starts from the truth and goes towards lies and mythology starts from lies--fantasy--and goes toward truth.
--Jean Cocteau
There are only three things which make life worth living: to be writing a tolerably good book, to be in a dinner party for six, and to be traveling south with someone whom your conscience permits you to love.
--Cyril Connolly, A Romantic Friendship
I believe if I were to one day accept a religion, it would be of Buddhism. No other faith seems to offer such an eloquent expression of hope and beauty with its array of imagery, fashioned seemingly by devoted geniuses of a fantasy world.
--Joseph Conrad, The Shadow Line
Some men go skimming over the years of existence to sink gently into a placid grave, ignorant of life to the last, without ever having been made to see all it may contain of perfidy, of violence, and of terror.
--Joseph Conrad
Everybody in the world is a little mad.
--Joseph Conrad, The Shadow Line
One of the chief delights and benefits of travel is that one is perpetually meeting men of great abilities, of original mind, and rare acquirements, who will converse without reserve.
--Disraeli, Coningsby
I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
--Dorothy, Wizard of Oz
It seems to me that the reader of a good travel book is entitled not only to an exterior voyage, to descriptions of scenery and so forth, but to an interior, a sentimental or temperamental voyage, which takes place side by side with the outer one.
--Henry Douglas
Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation.
--Elizabeth Drew
Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will--whatever we may think.
--Lawrence Durrell, Bitter Lemons
Let the tourist be cushioned against misadventure. Your true traveler will not feel that he has had his money's worth unless he brings back a few scars.
--Lawrence Durrell, Spirit of Place
Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.
--Lawrence Durell, Bitter Lemons
The first condition of right thought is right sensation--the first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.
--T.S. Eliot
The end of all our travels is to come back to the place we began and to know it for the first time.
--T.S. Eliot
Between the Idea and the Reality...Falls the Shadow.
--T.S. Eliot
Fat Cat Saturday Blog
Fat Cat 1
Fat Cat 2
Fat Cat 3
As a bonus for my thousands of loyal readers and those of you have sent in thousands of dollars to support this blog, here's a gripping series of photos of what happens when you share too much love with your little kitty.
Test for Expats in Thailand
Darkie Toothpaste
You Know You’ve Been in Thailand Too Long When:
1. You look four ways before crossing a one way street.
2. You’ve bought a house for a Thai bar girl, or at least a motorcycle.
3. You begin to enjoy Thai TV programs.
4. You think it’s normal to have a beer at 9:00 a.m.
5. You realize that ALL your problems are caused by Thai girls or cranky ATMs.
6. You know all the bars and people mentioned in Trink’s weekly website.
7. A Thai cop stops you for a minor infraction and you automatically reach for your wallet.
8. You think that a Honda Civic is a prestigious car.
9. All your tee-shirts are emblazoned with the name of a bar.
10. You can’t remember the last time you wore a suit and tie. You think a safari jacket and jeans are formal attire.
11. Your Thai girlfriend has more gold than you.
12. Someone asks you what Thailand is famous for and you reply, "hookers, spicy food and corruption."
13. Someone tells you that watching Thai politics is like watching two chameleons making love and you understand the analogy.
14. The most important event of your day is the announcement of the exchange rate.
15. You aren’t upset when the Isaan bar girl next to you eats beetles as a snack.
16. Later the same night, you actually kiss the Isaan bar girl who earlier dined on the beetles.
17. You haven’t had a solid stool for five years.
18. Your most prized possessions are your passport and credit cards.
19. You wake up in the morning and realize that you have nowhere to go and all day to get there.
20. You think white wine goes well with Som Tam.
21. You understand when your Thai wife says, "My friend you" or "Same, same, but different."
22. You need money quickly, so you realize that there certainly is no point in going inside a Thai bank.
23. A Thai bar girl you’ve just met tells you that her mother is deathly ill and you just laugh and walk away.
24. A newly arrived tourist asks how long it takes for a Thai girl to reach orgasm and you respond, "Who cares?’
25. You don’t mind when a Thai cuts in front of you in line. Instead, you just stand on his foot and pretend ignorance.
26. You aren’t surprised when your Thai girlfriend covers her mouth when picking her teeth then openly picks her nose.
27. You realize that your Thai wife’s loyalties belong to 1. Her parents. 2. Her brats from a previous marriage to a Thai scoundrel who deserted her. 3. Any remaining blood relatives. 4. The family buffalo. 5. The family’s goldfish. 6. You. (This pecking order is inviolate.)
28. The Thai Navy buys a new submarine and you’re not surprised when the first thing they do is remove the mufflers and hang a garland from the rear view mirror.
29. Your Thai girlfriend gets angry when you tell her "No money, no honey, no funny."
30. You consider your mobile phone a fashion accessory.
31. You no longer enjoy Songkran in Pattaya. Instead, you stay home with a stack of videotapes.
32. It’s two days before payday, so you only go to bars with balloons strung outside.
33. You realize that all the important words in Thai begin with the letter ‘S’. Sanuk (Fun), Saduak (convenient), Sabai (comfortable), Suay (pretty).
34. You believe that buying a gold chain is an acceptable courtship ritual, or at least a form of foreplay.
35. You think a calendar more useful than a watch.
36. You realize that the only way to become millionaire in Thailand is to start off as a billionaire.
37. You’re discussing Thai girls with a farang buddy and you say, "Yeah, I’ve got her exactly where she wants me."
38. You go to a Thai Boxing match and a soccer game breaks out.
39. You stand in the shadow of a telephone pole while waiting for a bus.
Scoring
0-10: You’re fresh off the boat, but there may be hope for you yet. Concentrate on living like a Thai, keeping in mind that it is not a race but a culture.
11-20: You’ve been here a while, but still a bit green. You probably have too many farang friends. Hang in there; perversion is its own reward.
Over 20: An old Thai hand. If you live to be 100, you still won’t be able to understand these people. How long since you’ve visited your poor old mom or had a meal in which you could identify all the ingredients? Seriously though, don’t tell your friends back home how good it is here, lest we get deluged with a bunch of yahoos in the 0-10 range.
Travel Quotes from Southeast Asia Handbook
Southeast Asia Handbook by Carl Parkes
Travel Quotes from Southeast Asia Handbook by Carl Parkes
There are only three things which make life worth living: to be writing a tolerably good book, to be in a dinner party for six, and to be traveling south with someone whom your conscience permits you to love.
--Cyril Connolly, A Romantic Friendship
I believe if I were to one day accept a religion, it would be of Buddhism. No other faith seems to offer such an eloquent expression of hope and beauty with its array of imagery, fashioned seemingly by devoted geniuses of a fantasy world.
--Joseph Conrad, The Shadow Line
Some men go skimming over the years of existence to sink gently into a placid grave, ignorant of life to the last, without ever having been made to see all it may contain of perfidy, of violence, and of terror.
--Joseph Conrad (TH1 page 400)
Everybody in the world is a little mad.
--Joseph Conrad, The Shadow Line
One of the chief delights and benefits of travel is that one is perpetually meeting men of great abilities, of original mind, and rare acquirements, who will converse without reserve.
--Disraeli, Coningsby
I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
--Dorothy, Wizard of Oz
It seems to me that the reader of a good travel book is entitled not only to an exterior voyage, to descriptions of scenery and so forth, but to an interior, a sentimental or temperamental voyage, which takes place side by side with the outer one.
--Henry Douglas (TH1 page 148)
Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation.
--Elizabeth Drew
Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will--whatever we may think.
--Lawrence Durrell, Bitter Lemons (TH1 page 470)
Let the tourist be cushioned against misadventure. Your true traveler will not feel that he has had his money's worth unless he brings back a few scars.
--Lawrence Durrell, Spirit of Place
Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.
--Lawrence Durell, Bitter Lemons
The first condition of right thought is right sensation--the first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.
--T.S. Eliot
The end of all our travels is to come back to the place we began and to know it for the first time.
--T.S. Eliot
Between the Idea and the Reality...Falls the Shadow.
--T.S. Eliot
There are three wants which can never be satisfied: that of the rich who want something more, that of the sick who want something different, and that of the traveller who says "anywhere but here."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you go only once around the room, you are wiser than he who stands still.
--Estonian proverb
Tourism is that gregarious passion which destroys the object of its love.
--Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts
I have always had a fanatic belief that travel enriched individual lives, increased the community's prosperity, raised a nation's living standards, opened political barriers, and most important, functioned as the most effective eye-opener between different cultures. We in the travel business are a lucky lot to be in such a useful, joyful, and peaceful endeavor.
--Eugene Fodor (TH1 page 269)
Throughout history it has been man who worships and polishes the vehicle, and the women who packs the suitcases.
--John Fowles
Fish & Visitors stink in 3 days.
--Benjamin Franklin
A great part of the pleasure of travel lies in the fulfillment of early wishes to escape the family and especially the father.
--Sigmund Freud
Travel, for too long, has been trivialized in the popular press and by the promoters of popular tours; it deserves better. It is an enduring subject of human concern, the essential requisite for a civilized life, perhaps the most effective tool for reducing foolish national pride and promoting a world view.
--Arthur Frommer, New World of Travel
I travel light; as light, That is, as a man can travel who will Still carry his body around because of its sentimental value.
--Christopher Fry, The Lady's Not for Burning
Etymologically a traveler is one who suffers travail, a word deriving in its turn from Latin tripalium, a torture instrument consisting of three stakes designed to rack the body.
--Paul Fussell, Abroad
Homesickness is one of the traveler's ailments, and so is loneliness. Fear--of strangers, of being embarrassed, of threats to personal safety--is the traveler's usual, if often unadmitted, companion. The sensitive traveler will also feel a degree of guilt at his alienation from ordinary people.
--Paul Fussell, The Norton Book of Travel
He who travels fastest travels alone, but he who travels best travels with a companion, if not always a lover.
--Paul Fussell, Abroad
One who has hotel reservations and speaks no French is a tourist.
--Paul Fussell, Abroad
Friday, May 06, 2005
Paper Money from Asia
Here's a few examples of paper money I've picked up in Asia over the last few years wandering the region:
Indonesia 100 Rupiah 1958
Laos 100 Kip (Back)
And here's one from my days as an Air Force brat at Yokota A.F.B. in Japan in the early 1960s:
U.S. Military Money Japan 1962
Another Friday Cat Pissed Off
Saturday Cat
When will Carl get back to his regular posting? And why is he taking off for SE Asia next week?
Laos Travel Story
Laos Cinq Kip
Fine travel story about Laos and Luang Prabang:
Luang Prabang Diary
And another about an English teacher in Bangkok:
Bangkok Triad
Thailand Images at Flickr
Thai novice monks in Phitsanulok
Last year, I created a Flickr site with images of Thailand, and everyone is welcome to have a look and contribute their Thailand photos.
Thailand Images at Flickr
Asia Blog Report
Inside a Bloggers Mind
San Francisco Chronicle
May 5, 2005
Wayne E. Yang
What's makes an Asian blog Asian?
That's what I wondered as I perused the nominees for Best Asian Weblog in this year's fifth annual Weblog Awards (also known as "the Bloggies") and the Top 100 List on Rice Bowl Journals, the popular "Asian online journal community." There were plenty of compelling blogs, but, beyond geography and popularity, they didn't seem to have much in common.
If anything united them, it wasn't their Asian-ness so much as their personal nature.
In the United States, in the age of "Sex in the City," the confessional nature of blogs is taken for granted. But in the East, this kind of frankness can seem new, even shocking. (The HBO series began appearing in Singapore only last summer.)
"I blog about sex-related things occasionally, and, while it's arguably Asian, it's certainly not Indonesian, because sex is still a taboo and is not something you should talk about openly," says Firda Beka, a freelance Web designer originally from Indonesia who now lives in Ontario. She writes a blog called Weblog Wannabe.
In Asia, where government restrictions and cultural mores have traditionally been strict, this testing of sexual, political and cultural borders is becoming more common. But blogs level the publishing landscape; they're the new vanity press. If you want to see your writing in print, you simply publish yourself.
Asian bloggers have taken to this idea of personal expression. But can something this egocentric represent a region?
Find It on a Map
To begin, debate rages as to how to even define Asia geographically. The Bloggies' Best Asian Weblog category excludes the Middle East, acknowledges award founder Nikolai Nolan, and that exclusion irks at least one "A-list blogger." "Oh, please -- go buy a geography map, compare it with blog data and then break it down accordingly," wrote Om Malik, a senior writer for Business 2.0, on his blog when the nominees were listed earlier this year. "Asia cannot be a monolithic section -- it is a continent with many flavors, and regions, each different from another."
Yet geography is too easy a way of thinking of a region, when culture can be mind-set.
"I've always thought of the geographical categories in Weblog awards as somewhat silly and pointless," admits Beka. "What people blog about rarely has something to do with their geographical locations, because the Internet has no border."
Catch a Shooting Star
Wendy Cheng, better known as "Xiaxue," is among those crashing borders, geographically and in frankness. The Singapore-based graphic arts student dolls herself up like a Japanese pop star but breezily pops off expletives as easily as a trucker, and her Judy Tenuta-type sense of humor ("Why are you worshipping the ground I blog on?") has garnered her lots of fans. Cheng, whose blog won this year's Best Asian Weblog award, says she gets 3,000 visitors per day, but her daily traffic spiked to 8,300 after she was mentioned on Blogger Buzz. Throw in a healthy dose of Singlish, or Singapore English ("I see you, my heart will POM POM TIAO!"), and you have the makings of a blog celebrity. Cheng has even landed an endorsement deal with a T-shirt company called Local Brand.
Cheng's popularity seems to be rising, at least on other Singapore blogs, though not everyone loves her. One fellow blogger, seemingly tired of her popularity, has been promoting other female Asian bloggers as "Xiaxue killers." Others, men and women alike, have satirized and imitated a photo of Xiaxue in which she licks her lips and flirtatiously rolls her eyes upward in what is supposed to be a provocative prose; there have even been anime and animal (specifically, canine) versions.
One blogger who enjoys ribbing his fellow Singaporean is Lee Kin Mun, writer of a blog called Mr. Brown (as in the coffee drink made by Taiwan's King Car Group). Although Lee wears one of those too-ubiquitous Buckwheat-style Afro wigs in his blog mug shot, he has a wicked tongue, which is firmly planted in cheek as he comments on Singapore news, policy and pop culture between writing notes about his children; he has also has begun experimenting with podcasting (recording broadcasts that can be downloaded onto an iPod).
Lee, who flips easily back and forth between the Queen's English and Singlish -- "Sorry, my farder say I cannot play your taupok," he says in one post (Taupok translates roughly to "dog pile") opined recently on the meaning of the Singlish term lah. (It's surprisingly complicated; check the link for an explanation.)
Adriana Tan, who says her blog name, Popagandhi, partly reflects her "unnatural obsession with all things Indian," understands this play between English accents and dialects. "Wherever I go, I am not allowed to forget how perfectly crisp and displaced my unaccented English is," she has written. "If there is an accent, it is not one you can pin down. To my countrymen, it betrays my independent-school upbringing, a way of life, perhaps even my inclination toward the ways of the 'West.' To all others, it is a curious melting pot of diverse manners of speaking, testament to the absorption of diffuse cultures, if we are even able to say clearly what 'culture' is, if we even had any control over these points of contact."
Ask an Expat
Read the Rest
Thursday, May 05, 2005
My Next Vehicle?
I've been quite happy tooling around San Francisco on my trusty Honda Elite 250 scooter for several years (plus buses and BART), but I now need something larger and more powerful to suit my oversized ego, and scare the hell out of the natives. Which one should I choose?
Hydrogen BMW
Airplane Limo
Hellcat Confederate
Jeep Treo
Japanese Trucks
Giant Truck
Smart Truck III
Angkor Wat in Virtual Reality
Angkor Wat
Here's some background on the World Heritage Virtual Tour:
The WHTour is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a documentary and educational image bank of printable panoramic pictures and online virtual tours for all sites registered as World Heritage by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). All panoramas are shooted, built and uploaded on this website by Tito Dupret, a 33 year-old multimedia director from Belgium and Bijuan Chen, his 26-year old multimedia assistant from China.
So far, they have covered Bangladesh, Eastern Canada, China, Cambodia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, The Philippines and Vietnam. This represents 13.2 % of all 788 WH sites : 104 sites with 525+ Virtual Reality movies (VRs) available via the above menus. This project is at its beginning only and will need years to complete. The WHTour is slowly growing since July 2001 and constantly seeking financial help in order to pursue its mission. People involved in the WHTour are volunteering.
The following explanation about Virtual Reality is taken from the World Heritage Tour site, and gives some background on the fabulous VR images found at their homepage. You'll need Quicktime and some patience - about 60 seconds - to download each file if you're still stuck with 56K dial-up connections.
Quicktime and virtual reality
In order to navigate through the WHTour web site, you need to download the Quicktime plugin. It is easy, fast, free. You will then be able to navigate in virtual reality movies the way described here. Once you've downloaded a VR file, click once directly into the image, then hold the mouse down and drag it around. You seem to fly around the image in all directions, a 360 degree exploration of the environment. You can also zoom in closer with the "shift" key or zoom out with "ctrl" key.
What is virtual reality (VR)?
Virtual reality opens up the world to us in a way hitherto unknown, by allowing people to visit almost any place from practically any location without time constraints. It is a media drawing upon traditional photography and film industry. It depicts more than a photo but without the time limits of a movie. It is an interactive media meaning that the audience is active. Without their participation, the VR movie would be without animation ; in essence the audience gives life to the picture by viewing it from various angles, zooming in/out and clicking hyperlinks/icons.
It is also a very "light" and practical media. One person with skills and a backpack is enough to cover any site in the world. For this reason, it is inexpensive to produce compared to other animated systems. Moreover, it is a broad-ranging medium insofar as it can be supported on many different media systems, from a light web interface to heavy cinema productions or any printing support and at any quality level.
What is QuickTime VR ?
QuickTime VR lets you rotate your view of a scene through a complete 360 horizontal x 180-degree vertical sphere. As you change your view of the scene, correct perspective is maintained, creating the effect of being at the location and looking around. QuickTime VR is the first mainstream technology to enable theses experiences based on real world scenes.
How does the WHTour create virtual reality movies?
Taking a selection of digital images, each VR movie is made by stitching together 28 of these images. The computer creates the effect of being inside a sphere giving the user the scope to view all around oneself at 360 x 180 degrees. Actually, this sphere is made with the six separate sides of a cube : the front, right, back, left, top and bottom sides. The borders of each side connect to the others and the illusion is perfect.
For the WHTour, all VR movies are produced on site with a laptop and then disseminated on the internet through local connections. Each VR is about 1/2 day postproduction according to the complexity of stitching. Each VR of the WHTour is manually stitched.
Angkor Wat in Virtual Reality
Gadling on my Flickr India Photos
Kerala by Carl Parkes
For today’s POTD we have to go back to one of our favorites: Friskodude. The guy is just amazingly prolific, both with his written blog and his Flikr site. This one comes from his India collection. If you have not checked out his stuff before, I urge you to do so. Now. I promise, you can easily find yourself clicking around for an hour.
Thanks Erik!
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Travel Photos Par Excellance
Angkor Wat by Isaac at BigTrip.Org
Have you ever wanted to travel around the world, take outstanding photographs, and post them on your website to universal acclaim? Well, Isaac and his girlfriend did this last year, and the results are nothing short of stunning. The most curious thing about his website is the complete lack of personal biography, contact information, or background on his journey. Does anyone have the story on Isaac and his round-the-world photographic tour? Be sure to check his images of Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh, Hong Kong, and India.
The Best Travel PhotoBlog Ever
Thai Crime Photos Inc.
Mayhem at Disco Raid, Pattaya
Can You Spot the Crime?
Whoopsie!
Thai Rath Strikes Again
World's Tallest Skyscrapers
World's Four Tallest Skyscrapers
World's Tallest Skyscrapers -- Present and Future Structures
World's Tallest Structures (Note: Guangzhou TV Tower has been Scaled Down)
Future Architecture in China
Beijing Proposal
Proposed CCTV Beijing
Proposed CCTV Beijing
Proposed CCTV Beijing
Beijing National Museum (Under Construction)
Proposed Beijing Residential Towers
Neglected Architecture in Hong Kong
Thai Crime Photos Inc.
Pattaya Terrorist Surrenders
Kathoeys Stalk Beach Road
Please Point at your "Date"
Together at Last
Godzilla Attacks!
Godzilla Attacks Vientiane!
Godzilla Attacks Hollywood!
Godzilla gets Hollywood fame star
Movie monster Godzilla has received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, honouring both his 50th birthday and the launch of his 28th film. "Godzilla should thank you for this historical and monumental star," said Final Wars producer Shogo Tomiyama. "But unfortunately, he cannot speak English," he added.
Hollywood's honorary mayor, Johnny Grant, said: "I do hereby proclaim this Godzilla Day in Hollywood. Godzilla was joined by his latest co-stars in Hollywood. "He's loose, he's wild, and I'm getting the hell out of here," he added.
The premiere of Godzilla: Final Wars at Grauman's Chinese Theatre followed the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard.
The monster was joined by co-stars including Japanese pop star and actor Masahiro Matsuoka. Director Ryuhei Kitamura said it may not be Godzilla's final outing, as it has been billed. "That's what the producers say. But the producer's a liar," he said. "[Godzilla's] been working for the last 50 years. So, I think Godzilla just deserves a vacation." And producer Shogo Tomiyama added: "So long as Godzilla can fascinate people, I believe he will be resurrected by new generations of filmmakers in the future."
Godzilla first appeared in 1954 as a prehistoric lizard woken by atomic bomb tests.
Godzilla Attacks Hollywood and says, "I'm a Dinosaur and Couldn't Care Less."
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
American Geography Quiz Time!
American Geography Quiz Time!
This game is great fun! You must place each state in the EXACT position on the blank map of the United States. Those states located adjacent to a body of water are fairly easy, since you can see the outline for placement, but Wyoming and Colorado will probably throw you, as well as Iowa. Good luck!
American States Geography Quiz
Thai Crime Photos Inc.
He's taking a phone call, now?
Plan Nine from Outer Space
Smilin' at the Headless Corpse
Does Pixillation Really Hide His Identity?
Maps and Photography
World Map
Here's some more links to great websites about maps and photography, two of my ongoing obsessions:
Earthview
EarthView is a dynamic desktop wallpaper and screen saver, which displays beautiful views of the earth with daylight and night shadows. It produces high quality images for every screen resolution - even beyond 1600x1200! The program supports map and globe views, urban areas, city lights, clouds and much more. Many options allow total customization of all view parameters.
Dymaxion Map of the World
Just a jpeg, but a cool way to look at the world, whether or not it is more "accurate" than other cartographic interpretations.
American States Geography Quiz
I listed this wonderful quiz below, but here it is again for those readers too damn lazy to scroll down............
Sacred Sites World Photography
Martin Gray is an anthropologist and photographer specializing in the study of sacred sites and pilgrimage traditions around the world. Traveling as a pilgrim, Martin spent twenty years, visiting and photographing over 1000 sacred sites in eighty countries. This web site discusses Martin's pilgrimage journeys, features many of his photographs and writings, lists calendar details of upcoming slide shows, gives information regarding book and photograph orders, and has links to related sites.
Sun Clock
Wonder where the sun is shining anywhere in the world? This place shows you the way.
The Map Room Blog
Maps! Maps! Maps! A great blog for everyone from professional cartographers to futzes who just love the art form. Very cool, I put this one in my Favorites under Fun2.
World Sunlight Map
Ever wondered where in the world is shining right now? This website is even better than the one I mentioned above. Hey! It's sunny here in San Francisco right now, but pretty dark in Calcutta.
Millau Viaduct Masterpiece
The world's highest road bridge has been inaugurated in southern France by President Jacques Chirac. The Millau bridge over the River Tarn in the Massif Central mountains is more than 300m (984ft) high - taller even than the country's Eiffel Tower. The bridge, which opens to traffic on Thursday, was built to clear summer traffic jams around the town.
BBC Article on Millau Viaduct
Yahoo News
Millau Viaduct under Construction
Millau Viaduct
Millau Viaduct
Millau Viaduct
Millau Viaduct
Millau Viaduct
Millau Viaduct
Millau Viaduct
Millau Viaduct
Burj Dubai Now Under Construction
Construction of world's tallest tower to begin
10 December 04
NewScientist.com news service
The construction of what will be the world's tallest building is set to begin in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The building contract was awarded to a consortium led by the South Korean Samsung Corporation on Thursday. The Burj Dubai tower will stand 800 metres tall - just 5 metres shy of half a mile - once completed in 2008. That will be nearly 300 metres taller than the tallest floored building in the world today, the Taipei Tower in Taiwan.
The new tower’s unique, three-sided design will ascend in a series of stages, around a supportive central core and boast a total of 160 floors, accessible via a series of double-decker elevators. Its shape will be integral to its impressive size. The design is intended to reduce the impact of wind and to reduce the need for a stronger core - allowing for more space - as it ascends. "It's almost like a series of buildings stuck together," says Mohsen Zikri, a director at UK engineering consultants Arup. "As you go up you need less and less lifts and less core."
A key challenge will be the logistics involved in construction, Zikri told New Scientist. "You need things to be delivered with military precision or you will have chaos on the ground." A spokeswoman for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Chicago-based architects firm behind the design in the US, says the shape should prevent wind vortices building up around the tower and causing it to move in the wind. "Wind is the primary thing at this height," she told New Scientist. "The engineers have focused on shaping the building to minimise this effect."
As wind whirls around a tall building it can build into powerful vortices that in turn generate powerful winds on the ground. But the wide base of the Burj Dubai should also prevent wind from causing these disturbances. Besides beating the Taipei Tower, which stands at 508 metres tall, Burj Dubai will also be considerably taller than the CN tower in Toronto, Canada which at 553 metres is the tallest structure in the world without a multiple floor structure.
Foundation work was recently completed by Turner Construction International, based in New York, US. Above ground construction will now begin under the control of the Samsung Corporation. The contract was awarded by Emaar Properties in Dubai, after an 11-month bidding process. The tower will be used for offices, residential apartments, hotels and shops and will be surrounded at its base by a man-made lake.
New Scientist Article on Burj Dubai
Burj Dubai
Burj Dubai
Burj Dubai
Burj Dubai
Burj Dubai
Thai Crime Photos Revisited
Criminal "Suspects"
Spot the Criminal?
Yeah, He Looks the Type
Criminal Arson in Pattaya? Or Just Burning Food Carts?
Tuesday Cat
All Cats Are Cute!
OK, OK, so it's Sunday. And the cat is ugly. But at least I got the damn thing up for the week, so please, leave me alone.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Tsunami Children of India
Tragedy in India
Mother and Child
Father and Son
Parents and Child
Farewell on the Beach
Tsunami Survivor
North Korea Secret Nuclear Launch Sites
Proposed Lotte Tower Seoul (left) Busan (right)
The race to construct the tallest building in the world has moved around Asia over the last decade from Kuala Lumpur (Petronas Towers) to Taipei (Taipei 101), and is now headed towards Dubai (Burj Dubai), Shanghai (World Trade Centre) or perhaps even Seoul, where the Lotte company has proposed a building of such architectural monstrosity that the mind boggles. The Marmot's Hole from Korea has all the bloody details including links to the other construction projects around the world.
Now, the Chosun ran an illustration of the planned skyscraper, which literally made me sick the first time I saw it. That’s right, it’s a 112-story, 555-meter version of the Eiffel Tower, the kind of monstrosity only Lotte could build. The original Eiffel Tower is nice. Japan’s Tokyo Tower is simply tacky, but Lotte’s planned abomination, if I didn’t know any better, would seem to be designed with the goal of challenging Pyongyang’s Ryugyong Hotel as the world’s most disconcerting structure.
Luckily, if it does go up as scheduled, it would hold on to the title of the world’s tallest building only for a short period, because Korea’s Samsung Corporation has won a contract to build the 160-story, 700-meter Burj Dubai Tower in the UAE. Unlike the Lotte structure, however, the Burj Dubai Tower design should really be spectacular, as the illustration would indicate. Shame Samsung had to build it in Dubai while Korea gets stuck with a 112-story monument to Lotte’s lack of good taste.
Interestingly enough, Lotte is putting up a 107-story building in Busan as well. Unlike its Seoul structure, Lotte’s Busan project won’t be such a bad looking building. The plan did run into controversy, however, because it called for the removal of the nearby Yeongdo Bridge. The bridge, built by the Japanese in 1934, was the first bridge to link Yeongdo Island and downtown Busan, and Korea’s only drawbridge until 1966, when the the bridge was redesigned. In addition, the bridge was famous as a meeting place for refugees fleeing as Seoul fell to Communist forces on Jan. 4, 1951, so it was of historical and emotional significance.
Back to big buildings, Lotte won’t be the only company putting up skyscrapers in Seoul. Seoul City is looking to build a 130-story International Business Center as part of its Digital Media City project (nice website, BTW). Meanwhile, American International Group will be putting up the Seoul International Finance Center, featuring two towers of 80-stories and 50-stories, in lovely Yeouido.
The Marmot's Hole on the Horrors of Future Architecture
Michael Jackson Court Date 2 May 2005
Michael Jackson Appears in Court
It's a sad day when Michael Jackson needs to appear in court to defend his reputation against charges of sucking the dicks of small boys, but I'm more interested in the old photos of Vanna White, which were published about 20 years ago in Penthouse. I saw them many years ago at the store at Jordan/Geary here in San Francisco and was stunned at the incredibly perfect body of Vanna. Anyone got the pics? Send them along!
Oarfish Sautee
Oarfish Lovers Pose for Posterity
Creature from the Deep
Sydney Morning Herald
Feb 7, 2005
A rare - and dead - oarfish washed up at City Beach in Perth yesterday, proving more than a handful for Troy Coward, Andy Mole and Axel Strauss (pictured).
The serpent-like animal was found six metres offshore, bringing to at least six the number of oarfish that have washed up on the West Australian coast in recent months. Prefering to live in the depths of the ocean they have only been known to come to the surface when sick or dying and have rarely been seen alive.
Living in the world's warmer oceans, it feeds on plankton and is harmless to humans. The longest bony fish in the sea, it grows up to nine metres long with a bright red crest that runs the entire length of its body. It is probably the creature that sparked "sea serpent" legends following sightings by ancient mariners.
Last year a woman in Cleveland on the north-east coast of England caught a 63.5kg, 3.5m-long oarfish while fishing for cod, using a squid bait. Scientists were disappointed when the woman, who weighed 13kg less than the fish, sliced it up and put it in her freezer.
Read the Rest
Miss McDonald Returns!
Posing in Makati
Hanging the Laundry
Sunset in Boracay
Happy with Ronald
Raiding the Fridge
This is just too much. Some wacky Filipina in Manila dresses up as "Miss McDonald" and has photos taken of herself in town and elsewhere in the country. Her site suffers from bandwidth overload, and all the remaining photo links are broken, but in the meantime, let's all give it up for the latest fetish icon from the Philippines.
Miss McDonald!
Tiger Temple Thailand Revisited
Young Monk and Tiger
Monk with Tigers
Tigers on a Stroll
Better than a Zoo
And No Poachers Here
Last week I received a message from Donna in Thailand asking my opinion about the Tiger Temple, a Buddhist temple and animal sanctuary three hours west of Bangkok near Kanchanaburi, site of the famous Bridge Over the River Kwai. She pointed out that the tigers appeared to receive sedatives in their meals and wondered about the morality of the whole affair.
Donna has worked in Thailand for over five years with an Australian adventure travel company, and recently moved on to another company in the same field, but she also requested the remain anonymous. All the above photos were taken by Donna, plus two others with the lady actually hugging the tigers. Really amazing stuff.
Should wild tigers be kept captive in Buddhist temples? What are the dangers? Are these tigers being given sedatives and if so, is this wrong? Should the tigers be released to the wild, or placed in national parks, or donated to zoos? Or should they remain in this temple, along with the hundreds of other animals taken in by the monks?
Hi Carl
I just stumbled across your blog when I was searching for info about the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi.
I have been living in Thailand for the past five and a half years, and until just a few weeks back I was working as a tour leader for an Australian company. (Yep. I have LOTS of stories).
I have been to Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua on many occasions, and every time I leave I have more questions than when I came.
I understand that releasing Tigers into the wild is
not practical in this day and age (Unless they were
taken out to, say Khao Yai National Park, or to Khao
Sok in the South of Thailand) but there seems to be a
breeding program at the temple. Does it make sense to
breed these animals when the only option for them is
to be kept in captivity? Or is it better to have them
there, keeping the species alive, than letting them go
in the jungle and risk being shot?
Now, I know that tigers are a relatively sedate
animal, but there are rumours in Thailand among the
expat community that the tigers are drugged in order
to sedate them for the tourists. One expat even went
so far to tell a story where he went to the temple,
and was questioning the safety because he was thinking
of bringing his daughter to see the animals.
Apparently the monk told him "no problem. Tiger eat
medicine. Make him sleepy". He went on to say that
he saw the bottle of medicine (forget the name) and
that the 'milk' tablets that are given to the tigers
when you have your photo taken with them are actually
part of the drug program.
Now, do I believe this guy and not go to the temple
again, or do I disbelieve him and go to the temple,
thus encouraging the monks and caretakers to keep this
practice up.
The tigers are kept in concrete pens for most of the
day and come out in the afternoon when the tourists
come. So, the only exercise is for an hour or so in
the afternoon.
Carl, I am asking you for an opinion about this
temple. As you have been travel writing for so long,
I am sure you will know where I am coming from. The
moral issue, or the practical one? Which way to go?
I am currently working as a product development
manager for a Thai tour company and am considering
offering my small groups of people a side trip here.
Whilst I understand that the temple needs the money to
feed the animals (not just tigers - there are hundreds
of other animals in the temple), I am torn as to
whether we should encourage it.
What is your opinion on this? Any help you can give
me with this would be greatly appreciated.
More Tiger Temple Links at FriskoDude
Sin City Revisited
Sin City Slate Review
Benny in Sin City
Bruce in Sin City
Jessica Alba in Sin City
Clive Owen in Sin City
Rosie Dawson in Sin City
The movie of the season is out and the reviews are pouring in. Everyone is spellbound at the amazing images and graphics conjured up by the artist/director and actual director Roberto Rodriguez, but some have pointed out the shortcomings of a pure adaptation of a graphic comic to film and voice the standard complaints about the cold-hearted look of CGI. The cinemas here in San Francisco will be packed over the weekend, but next Monday looks like a good opportunity to catch a matinee.
Oh, the final picture of Rosario Dawson should be noted by Mr. Brown and entered into the Singapore SexyBlogger contest. I'm too lazy and think Singapore bloggers should have something better to do with their time, so MB, Miyagi, or Cowboy needs to get on this one.
Wired Review of Sin City
New York Times Review of Sin City
Slate Review of Sin City
