A Man's Job

The stone worker has been laid off for 2 months but keeps the secret from his wife. After posting some ads for temporary work, he accidentally goes into escort business, and has to satisfy the needs from different women, like combing woman's hair naked, listening to complaints, and dancing as a striper. But after his kid finds out the sex toys in his briefcase and his wife finds out he has been laid off, things have to change.

That is the description from the movie site and from the flier, and it makes the movie sound like comedy in a way, but it is not. The beginning of the escort business is fun, but then it takes a dive into blueish storyline beginning with the frustration of spending time with a girl with Down syndrome. The strip dance was a total bust that gets him bleeding in the head. Blood stain from the head when he has sex with the dominant woman was horrifying. The crying scene when he reads the boy a story tells he is reaching the limit. With the history of taking anti-depression medicine, it is not surprising that he takes a drastic measure at the end.

He takes off his wedding ring early in the movie and hurt his fingers. The baddage stays on till very late in the movie. That shows the whole movie happens in a very short period of time. It is not very convincing that everything in the movie happens so quickly.

Atonement

Kids can be very direct and cruel. They could be more worse when they are jealous, and this is what happens in Atonement. Briony gives false witness and accuses Robbie of crimes that he has not done, and that separates Robbie and her sister Cecilia. Briony never has to courage to apoligize to the couple. The couple died early. Briony wrote a book to confess what she had done, what had happened, and what she could make atonement is to make up a happily ever after ending for this couple.

Music, ok. Many shots are focused on Briony, and the background music (or maybe just sound) of those shots is just like horror music to give audience sense of suspense. I believe some soft piano rhythm will be good subsitute for this occasion and gives more of sadness and sutlety. Too much loud typing sound is also very disturbing, although it implies Briony types and writes the novel, but too much is too much. Another complaint is too many repeats of the same key words. One "Come back, come back to me" is impressive, and make the audience relive the movie again and again. Twice is a bit over and make it seem not that important. What about 3 times? Find another screenplay writer!

But generally this is a good movie. The young girl playing Briony beautifully portrays a sensitive young writer, and let the audience, without knowing what the story is all about, expects she would be a successful writer.

Taxi And Tuk Tuk

As a foreigner in Thailand, I hate taxis and tuk tuk. Although I understand the taxi drivers have to, by law, use the meter to charge, they just like to negotiate with tourists. It will be easy to say that if they don't use the meter, just leave the car, and find another taxi. What often happened was, I gave them the map, they studied and figured out how to get to my destination, and then shamelessly, raised their index finger and said 100 baths. Some would even ask for 200 bahts! That is when I really wanted to slap their faces and bite their fingers. A complete waste of my time.

As for tuk tuk, negotiation on the fare is necessary, which I hate. I also hate the noise and pollution. The engine is just way too loud and can be heard from miles away at night. Can they do something to make the engine more environment friendly? And going through busy traffic in Bangkok, the dirty air flies through the lungs at 5 times the walking speed. With the cover on top, you also don't get to see any street views. Bad choice of transportation.

I also have the same frustration when negotiating bus fares in Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

Not all the drivers are bad. I need to be fair. MM and I went out to MCA one night. Nothing happened there, we were tired, and taxi was the only way out. So we hopped on a taxi, and surprisingly, the driver used meter right away. When we got to the hotel, the fare was 61 bahts. He asked, politely, if I had one baht so he did not need to give me too many changes. Most drivers, I believe, will take my 70 bahts and keep the change, without asking me.

Thai Cooking Class

I signed up for Thai cooking class in Chiang Mai. I had walked by the class 2 days before and got brochure, so I called them one day before the class started, and told them I would be there myself. No need to pick me up. It is only 3 minutes walking from my guest house. I paid when I got to the class. The whole process was so simple.

The class started with simple introduction of the rice, rice cooker. Then the teacher took us to the market. That was in fact my favorite part where I got to see fresh ingredients. Holding the thai ginger, lemon grass, etc, their smell linked with the thai food I had enjoyed before. The teacher also was very nice to tell us when and how they use it, not to eat some of the spices because they are for flavor only. It was very easy walk around the market, and of course I bought a big glass of thai iced tea.

We had a spice treat when I went back to the class. 4 or 5 spices were chopped very fine and we wrapped all spices in one leaf and added sauce on top. See, I have been lazy to write travel report, and cannot now remember too many details, and it just happened one month ago.

Cooking itself was not that hard. First of all, we had menus. Secondly, all the food was ready. We did not need to devein the shrimps, not to measure how much curry we need to put in the food. We turned on the stove, added oil, put garlic in, shrimps in, then fish sauce, curry power, and it was done. That was how we made the first dish. Another nice thing about it is that we don't have to do the dishes. Huge plus!

And of course I ate it all, considering I am such a good cook.

After that we made deep fried spring roles, papaya salad, deep fried bananas. The nice thing about the papaya salad is that we used mortar and pestle to make it, and the salad we made looked exactly the same as what I got in Thailand. We just made food and ate it, made food and ate it. At 1:30 when we were enjoying the last plate, it was hot outside, but breezy inside. With the fan on and the lazy atmosphere, I actually took a short nap.

I had good company. Though I cannot remember their names (no surprise), but still remember the couple standing behind are newlywed, from Holland. They shared their wedding picture, and that was a wow. The 3 girls in front are from San Francisco. The guy on the right is the teacher.

The class is a very good way to kill time for the morning through 2pm, and, for me, is very educating. After the class, it is good to sit in the coffee shop till 3:30 or 4 and then start to visit the temples when the temperature is not so hot, and then get ready for the night fun. But I had a flight to Bangkok later that evening, so I took the last batch of pictures, and headed for the airport.

Chiang Mai Sunday Market

The nice thing to travel with someone is that you get to have your pictures taken more often. I was organizing photos few days ago, and realized all the pictures that I have from the Sunday market are the deep fried worms and insects. Duh~. Just yesterday, Rainy sent me few pictures. Nice pictures of her, Malaysia friends, and me. Looking at those pictures, hmm, just a wishful thinking that vacation will never end. T shirt, strawberry shake, some food that I never knew what that was but ate it anyway. Hmm, I can still feel the cool breeze of Chiang Mai.

Fireworks at Taipei 101

This is the fireworks show at Taipei 101 on December 31, 2007. See how they blew up Taipei 101.

Compared with others, this video may not give the best detail, but I like it when the camera does not wobble at all, and there is no zoom in and zoom out. The download is fast at least from my side when Youtube is normally slow at night.

When the fireworks happened, it was 11pm in Bangkok. What was I doing? Counting money with MM in the hotel to see who owes whom how much? How fun is that? :-)

Suk11

Suk11 is a pretty decent guest house. It is located in Soi11 of Sukhumvit, walking distance from Nana station. From the outside, it looks like a regular apartment. No elevator, narrow stairs. Not wooden floor in the hallway, but they put some wood as decoration. So what I am saying is that the floor is not flat surface, and I had to hand carry my luggage all the way to the end of the hallway to my room. That was not a pleasant trip, though I managed to deal with it. Room is spacious. No TV, and I don't miss it. No fridge, I am ok with it. Kind of quiet when I was finally there at 4 in the morning (of course). That was my first night, and I felt completely alone.

Room looks quite nice though. When I planned the trip, I was thinking of staying here for few nights because I had read so many good comments about this place, but the room photos on their website look so terrible. I did not book Suk11. Then since I had to stay in Bangkok for 2 nights before I headed for Chiang Mai, I did not know why but I was not able to find a nice room within my budget for both nights. They either only the first night open or the second. I decided to give Suk11 a try. It turns out to be nice.

All their walls are covered with notes from people all over the world. It forms a nice decoration actually. I have seen too much big chunks of graffiti, and seeing something smaller is a nice change.

Breakfast is included. Not many varieties, but then I don't have to worry about what to eat that early in the morning.

The Last Bag

I went to Bay Area for business trip last February, and found a very good collection of flavored tea in the office there. Eary gray, cinnamon, you name it. Of them all, this orange and spice is my favorite. The last weekend, or the last day of the business trip, I went to San Francisco to walk around. Thinking of visiting M, I think I stopped to get this box of tea, and called, but only got voice mail. I always like that cup of tea when I visit him. See I can't even remember the details that just happened less than one year ago. I took the box back to Taiwan, and forgot about it. Few months ago when I was in tossing mood, and went through all storage places to see what to get rid of. I found this box, and started to enjoy it once in a while. This tea, for some reason, makes me feel special. Funny thing is that I rarely finished the cup. One sip or two is enough for me. Now I am down to the last bag. Happy time...

A Bit Panic

The flight to Bangkok was delayed for 3 hours. It was bad. The reason is that I had bought insurance at the airport, which included inconvenience insurance. So if the flight is delayed for more than 4 hours, I can get 3000NT, which is around 90NTD. At the beginning of the fourth hour, I was thinking, it might not be a bad idea to sit for one more hour to get that 3000NTD, since I am waiting in this comfortable business cabin anyway. But then the pilot announced takeoff. Bummer.

Flight to Bangkok was uneventful. It was after 2am when it landed. Too late to get any public transportation to go to Bangkok. I jumped on the taxi, and told him the location, and it took off. Destination: Suk11, in soi 11 of Sukhumvit. The taxt got to the soi ok, but could not find the guest house. It was a weird situation. Not really knowing where I was, looking at the busy (yes, busy at 3am) soi, I was not sure what to do. Taxi started to drive around again, and was pretty sure he got to soi ok, and asked me to leave the taxi and find my own destination. I was NOT going to carry my luggage at 3am trying to find my location. So I started a long talk complaining about why he is a driver but cannot find the location, things like that. I did not expect him to understand, but just wanted to confuse him. He gave in.

Call the guest house, you might ask me to. That's what I did, but it rang and rang and no one answered the phone. The taxi driver even stopped to ask people on the street twice, but no one ever seemed to know the guest house. This is getting even weirder. He then tried another approach by entering the soi from Sukhumvit. Easier this way, as it is the same approach as the simple map I have from the guest house's website. We found it immediately. The reason why we did not see it was because the light for the guest house's sign was off already.

One guy still worked at the reception, but I later wondered why he did not answer my call. I was too tired to remember to ask him, but then thought this might be why it is cheap. You get what you pay for.

The next morning, I went out to walk around, and knew I was really silly. Suk11 really has great location. Very close to Nana station, only 3 minutes away on foot. I got a room with private bathroom, 2 beds for only 600B. It is hard to beat that price. With the price and location, ok room, I'll stay there if I go to Bangkok again.

Vacation Photos

Vacation photos are uploaded. Take a look at my vacation in Thailand!

My Street

Last Monday I took half a day off to run to a bank to close an account. I should have closed it when I left the previous company, because the location is out of the way, and I have to go to that particular bank in person to close the account.

It was ok at first, but when it was time to stamp my seal, I brought 2 seals, and neither is the one I used to open the account. I asked to change the seal, but only have ID card with me, no insurance card or driver's license as the second proof of identity, which is the norm in Taiwan to account related activities at the bank. There was no way around it, so I took the bus and walked down the street to go home. I was not a happy camper. Believe me, I complained and said bad things at the bank.

It was sunny, and I thought the street was so beautiful. I took a picture and felt a lot better. I came home and found the seal in another storage place, and took the bus back to the bank and finished what I had wanted to do. That took the whole morning.

Dream Lantern

I have been looking for a lantern like this one for quite a while. But most of the lanterns I found are very large, like the ones from IKEA are simply huge. I always want something that can hold only a tea light and I swore I had seen something like that. Whenever I see a candle store, I always stop to look, but never found anything. I started to wonder if anyone actually made it. Is it just pure my imgination that such a thing exists.

I was not dreaming! I found this lantern in Jatujak park. When I saw it, I knew it is the one. It may not be perfect when you look closely. The door is not aligned well, the edges are not quite smooth, but I was willing to get it at any cost. Now it is sitting on my desk. I love it. Money well spent.

Business Cabin

On the way to Bangkok, as the economy cabin was completely full, I got to go 'upstairs' to the business cabin. Champagne was served after we were all seated, but then flight attendants gave each passenger this box. Heard of this thing from Marc so many times, so I was excited to get one. Nothing special in there really. A pair of socks, chap stick, comb, toothbrush, eye mask, and earplugs. The best thing among all is the chap stick. One tiny drop and my lips got instant moisture. It works even better than the Blistex I bought from US. Later I tossed most of the things inside, and put my cash, cards and passport in it. It looks nice and neat, and is easier to manage. I love it.

There is so much leg room in the business cabin. I could also lie flat on the chair. It is quite amazing. Of course the flight was delayed for 3 hours, but at least I got to wait in the comfortable business cabin. At that point I wish it could have delayed for one more hour. I have insurance to cover flight delay, but the delay has to be more than 4 hours. One more hour to get 3000NTD extra for the travel is not a bad thing, but ah well.

I Am Legend

I was bored in Bangkok, so when Ed asked me if I wanted to do anything, I recommended going to the movie. In fact, I was thinking of going to IMAX at Siam Paragon, but then I was running late, I did not want to hurry cause I was on vacation, so we ended going to MBK. Lek was still with Ed. We bought tickets and had an hour to kill before the show time. We were bored in that hour. That is how bored we were.

Anyway, I am legend. OK movie. Pretty much a one man show for Will Smith, as he is the only survivor in New York. What I do not like is when the lady shows up in New York with her son to meet Will, and accidentally saves him. She tells Will that there is a shelter in the north, and the virus cannot survive there. When Will asks her how she knows about it. She says she just knows without much explanation and tells Will to listen to the God. At the end of the movie, she actually finds the shelter. This kind of story makes me uncomfortable. Maybe it should be classified as religious.