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.