so these boys wanted to take pictures with us....their shirts are of old school punk bands, but they don't know their music. Bangkok has a huge indy t-shirt printing scene, many original, many rip-offs of old North American shirt designs. You'll see little old ladies wearing Exploited shirts..pretty funny. These boys are about as non-mainstream as you get in Bangkok. Not much of a alternative scene here, I think cuz people are more concerned with getting out of poverty than looking cool. The kids that are into Western music are largely spoiled brats that have access to that type of thing (through internet mostly). The dude's acid wash jean jacket made my night.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
New Years Eve 2008
so these boys wanted to take pictures with us....their shirts are of old school punk bands, but they don't know their music. Bangkok has a huge indy t-shirt printing scene, many original, many rip-offs of old North American shirt designs. You'll see little old ladies wearing Exploited shirts..pretty funny. These boys are about as non-mainstream as you get in Bangkok. Not much of a alternative scene here, I think cuz people are more concerned with getting out of poverty than looking cool. The kids that are into Western music are largely spoiled brats that have access to that type of thing (through internet mostly). The dude's acid wash jean jacket made my night.
Monday, January 21, 2008
the Restourant
Laos x 2
See the mounds of sticky rice? I think sticky rice (cow niao in Thai) is one of the best things in the world. Here we are eating by the great Mekong river. Sticky rice was see as a nationalizing force, an unifying aspect of culture, and was banned in Cambodia.
Buddha park....the brain child of a recluse Laotian....
Laos is still a communist state, but is more appropriately known as post-communist. They are "liberalising" their economy, following the lead of Vietnam, ie. opening it up to the international market. Any dissenting voices against the government, however, are still strictly repressed.
Kings Birthday # 2
Hood Morning
Monday, November 19, 2007
Elephant Round Up Round 2
Monday, November 05, 2007
The real LT deal

So here's an example of a real Luk Thung show...Pattaya style. Pattaya is considered one of the sex-tourist capitals of the world...seeeeeeedy.
The background is painted like the rice feild...alot of the songs are about leaving the country for the big city, yearning for home and lost love type thing.
Yes, these are "working boys".
Luk Thung Halloween
If you've been following, you know I've developed a taste for Thai country style...especially Luk Thung music. So for Halloween my friend and I dressed up as Luk Thung dancers. Girls will rock these dresses and then go on stage and do painfully rehearsed moves. Often "girly bars" in the provinces will have girls dancing and singing this music, dressed like this.
My friend and I bought our costumes in the Thai/Burma border town. Of course, all the dresses were waaaaaay too small. The woman was going through them and finally pulled out these perfectly sized dresses: her little girl walks by and declares "UAN" (FAT!!!!!!). I was like "Chaaai...uan!" She looked at me in fear that I knew what she was saying.....
The flags are of the King's regalia. The King rules all. I fear saying anything more.
B-day in Sri Lanka

This is really old now....but here are the only pics of me on my birthday (that I know of). I was in Sri Lanka for a "human rights defenders forum", where all the brave amazing souls that work at the grassroots (re: deal with murders, "disappearances," intimidation on a daily basis). They came to this conference on threat of their lives to learn about human rights. Since I had been working for Sri Lanka, I got to meet all the people I was assisting from my safe post in Bangkok. We are in the mountains in Kandy. Imagine, 30 Sri Lankans singing me happy b-day. It rocked.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The hood...
The sticks.....
Laos
Spent acouple days in Laos, for a visa run. I liked it. Most notable was how class divisions weren't so gaping, like in Thailand. We went to the most bumpin club we could find in the capital city, Vientiane, and there were Japanese buisness men with prostitutes, fat white men with lady boys (unbeknownst to them!), high budget Laos b-boys, tuk tuk drivers and hi-so girlie girls. If you want to party in Laos, the options aren't exactly abundant. If you want to hit opium, heroin, or meth, however, seems like Laos is the place to be.....
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