hintofsarcasm
am i still ill? Archive for April, 2005
April 20, 2005 at 05:32 · Filed under Uncategorised
They aren’t big on seatbelts over here; in fact, they aren’t big at all. The average Thai is about the same size as Flora (who incidentally has a town named after her here ~ ‘Floraville’!)
Wherever I go they ask me
“You wan’ fly lice?”
but I’m not too partial to insects since I developed tastebuds at about the age of 2. Still, if I don’t find a restaurant that serves rice before too long I may just resort to eating the insects.
On Monday we left Khao San in style (a 3 hour cab ride that came to 20squid) and arrived a little further south in a seaside resort called Hua-Hin. It’s a lot more “cultured” in that the Tuc Tucs (motorbikes with carriages for passengers) don’t all have motors and the drains can’t cope with any form of toilet paper. (don’t ask)
The restaurants are all on the end of piers which makes for a nice view, however, and the beach has a wonderful breeze which is only obscured every *10 or 11* minutes by someone trying to sell you a priceless forgery, which isn’t too bad. The number of cats and dogs roaming around is surprising - I saw a dog riding on a moped which has to be a first. We’ve been told animals probably all carry Rabies so not to stroke them tho 
Dad seems to want to get to Ko Pha-Ngan island for the Full Moon Party this Saturday, so tonight we’re taking a nightbus all the way down south. I assume it must become airborne at some point as we’re going to an island - so that should be interesting.
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April 20, 2005 at 04:20 · Filed under Uncategorised
Phew. *wipes sweat from brow*
Well I’ve taken a break from labourosly slaving away at the beach and found a computer in the hotel (or ‘Guest House’). I’m hoping it’s included in the bill altho as everything costs around 20p here I’m not too worried if it isn”t.
Backblog:
Since the Songkran Festival ended and we scraped all the mud out of our eyeballs it’s been pretty interesting. We spent from Friday to Monday in Khao San, which, to quote Alex Garland “Serves as a decompression chamber between the East and the West.” The Thais are the most Westernised and the evidence is everywhere. It’s interesting to see how the Thais adapt to the onslaught of tourism and the west; it couldn’t be more different from Paris with it’s “I love the Eiffel Tower” T-shirts at every corner. These guys manage to maintain the culture, and have adapted rather than be overwhelmed by tourism.
While I hate haggling with poverty it seems impossible to walk down a street without being mobbed by people of all ages trying to sell you ‘top of the range’ pirate CDs, DVDs and very bad Rolexes. Patpong goes a step up the capitalist ladder with their rent-a-wife.com programs which, judging by the number of fat balding white men I saw with beautiful Thai girlfriends, works very successfully. Definately a great place to start a holiday as you don’t get too much of a culture shock too soon.
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April 18, 2005 at 11:39 · Filed under Uncategorised
Apparently so, says “WhoShouldyouvotefor.com”.
Though I still think I’ll be voting Liberal Democrat..
Who should I vote for?
Your expected outcome:
Liberal Democrat
Your actual outcome:
Labour -8  |
|
| Conservative -37 |
|
|
 Liberal Democrat 66 |
|
UK Independence Party 1 |
|
Green 70 |
You should vote: Green
The Green Party, which is of course strong on environmental issues, takes a strong position on welfare issues, but was firmly against the war in Iraq. Other key concerns are cannabis, where the party takes a liberal line, and foxhunting, which unsurprisingly the Greens are firmly against.
Take the test at Who Should You Vote For
April 16, 2005 at 11:39 · Filed under Uncategorised
Rule #1 for surviving in Thailand: Do NOT drink the water. ever. Don’t even brush your teeth with it - it’s that lethal.
Well, suffice to say arriving in the Thai New Year Festivities ensured we broke this rule pretty quickly ~ as it’s an ancient custom to enter the new year by throwing a combination of mud and water at every single person you encounter, then run up and smear goo on their face and clothes as a sign of good faith. I think I swallowed half of Thailand… :s
anyways, a day has passed and I seem to still be alive. I just met a 400ft Buddha and burnt my feet as shoes aren’t sacred, and am now seething with annoyance at the fact I’ve found a computer with a USB port **but** my new camera is so ’sophisticated’ it doesn’t fit the end of the cable I brought!!!!! *cries* (I really should’ve checked that before I left, I know) But never fear as there’s a Kodak place round the corner that claims to be able to put them on a CD for me. (not that this thing has a CD drive; but I’ll find one)
Dum dum dum. My story so far: Within 5 minutes of arrival in wherever I am (it’s the place at the beginning of The Beach where the crazy guy cuts his wrists!) we met a lost Canadian guy ((from Canada!)) called Austin who followed us around and I used him unsuccessfully as a human shield against all the mud. Then we took over the world and ate some chicken.
Thought of the moment: I wonder if the word ‘barter’ originates from Thai baht. It’s impossible to use one without the other.
oh, and we chose the 1,500 baht hotel (about 20quid <-- there is no 'pound' sign on this keyboard!) over the 150 ones as some things are just a little *too* cheap to be good....
Dan out.
Dan is Daniel Grosvenor, a good friend of mine who is guestblogging here at hintofsarcasm during his trip to Thailand. Dan will have his own site setup when he gets back, we’ll be sure to let you know the address.
April 15, 2005 at 14:00 · Filed under Uncategorised
Oh UKIP, you try to be a serious political party, but how can you be with your catalogue of blunders over the years, Robert Kilroy-Silk to name the biggest one.
Their manifesto proclaims “too many young people leave school without any basic standards of literacy or numeracy”.
Well, perhaps they end up working for UKIP.
See below for the first page in their 2005 Manifesto and try to spot the spelling mistake..D’oh. Someone is going to get their asses severely kicked over this as this is the manifesto that went to print too.
April 15, 2005 at 13:07 · Filed under Uncategorised
They’ve started striking..
First the Kurds, then they’ll marching across Europe waging war on anyone that stands in there way, I knew it would happen one day.
It was predicted, we were warned in the show South Park many years ago but we did nothing..
Now the BBC news are reporting that..
April 14, 2005 at 12:13 · Filed under Uncategorised
Hmm. Let’s play with Nathan’s blogmachine while I wait for the taxi…
Land of the Ties, with a quick en route to Amsterdam International Airport, which’ll hopefully yield some interesting stories. Did you know the Thai’s have no word for “no” ? But saying ‘meow’ suggests you’re not interested. Fascinating stuff.
One good thing about Thai-ese is that you have to remind people of your gender by saying either “crap” or “craa” at the end of each sentence. That would be so helpful in Florida when you meet those fat sweaty long-haired genderless gorilla people in queues… hopefully it’ll help me spot the ladymen there. Wowohwow there are builders in my roof and they’re building an up-upstairs and, um, yeah. I’m gonna go to Thailand now
byeeeeeee
P.s. - everyone download Morrissey - Sing Your Life and boogie on down to it.
p.p.s - fact: I know someone who got hit in the head with an aeroplane.
Dan is Daniel Grosvenor, a good friend of mine who is guestblogging here at hintofsarcasm during his trip to Thailand. Dan will have his own site setup when he gets back, we’ll be sure to let you know the address.
April 13, 2005 at 22:35 · Filed under Uncategorised
Here’s a preface from Dan who is tomorrow jetting out of these lowly British isles for tropical paradises afar, namely Thailand where he will no doubt encouter all types of weird and wonderful things.
Ladyboys, working girls, go-go dancers..I think you get the picture, pretty much every type of sex worker.
Dan will be a guest blogger for 3 weeks at hintofsarcasm.
Dan is Daniel Grosvenor, a good friend of mine who is guestblogging here at hintofsarcasm during his trip to Thailand. Dan will have his own site setup when he gets back, we’ll be sure to let you know the address.
April 13, 2005 at 12:56 · Filed under Uncategorised
Vote selling. Now, its not unheard of. Last year another British man put his vote in the European, mayoral and London assembly elections up for sale on eBay. (link)
This year for the British general election the idea has been taken on by numerous web-entrepreneurs with bids starting as low as 99p.
Unfortunately these auctions have been closed after the electoral commission contacted eBay citing section 113 of the Representation of the People act (1983) (link) which from what I can see bears no relevance to vote selling whatsoever.
That section of the act actually refers to the sale of the electoral register. There is no way that I can see under this act there are any grounds for prosecution if you sell your vote.
Are there any law students or solicitors who read this blog that can come to my rescue and confirm or deny if section 113 of the Representation of the People act bears any relevance to vote selling?
April 12, 2005 at 16:49 · Filed under Uncategorised
The Green Party has today launched its election manifesto but it will only be available from the web in pdf format in the hope that only those who actually need to print it out will do so in a bid to re-affirm their position as the eco-friendly party.
I for one like the idea, somebody at the Green Party definitely had their thinking caps on that day and really boosted the credibility of the party. The amount of manifestos that must be printed by each party and I would imagine the amount of wastage to be quite high.
The amount of manifestos, over all the parties that go unread, unallocated and end up spending the duration of its life sitting in the box in which it came in, before being thrown into the rubbish bin, could be quite substatial.
Plus, having your manifesto available on the web is a great idea as I don’t know where to get paper manifestos from, not least from all the different parties, so the convenience of them being just a click away must be beneficial to the party who makes them available because they are potentially netting themselves a substantially larger audience.
See the online manfiesto
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