eateggs

So, right now, I’m in Pattaya with the Thammasat debate group. Pattaya is, more or less, the top tourist destination in Thailand– it’s especially popular with Scandinavians, but generally popular with Europeans as a whole. Heck, I might as well make the observation: most of the tourists in Thailand are from Europe. I’ve met startelingly few American, outside of the exchange program. I’m not sure why exactly this is, but I guess Thailand just doesn’t fit into the American idealized travel itenerary of Disneyland, Disneyworld and the Carribean.

Anyhow. This is supposedly a “debate” camp, which is really a joke. In its defense, they (note, I’m just kinda along… I’m not sure why, exactly, aside from a general like for the people I’m with–) did sit down and work on debate related stuff for some four hours yesterday, and they’ll do some more work this morning. For myself… after feigning interest for a while (they’re prepping for an upcoming tournament in Korea), I resorted to my iPod and my book, and pleasantly passed my evening in that manner.

We’re staying here at Prau’s Pattaya home. Around 9:00, the nine of us piled into our van (which seats seven plus a driver), and headed over to the kareokee bar that Prau’s grandfather owns. After a delicious meal, we hung out singing kareokee until about, oh, say, 3:00 in the morning. To be fair, it did get a little boring after about four hours or so– being (strangely) the sober odd-one-out, listening to Thai pop songs (the selection of American songs was dismal) that… all sound the same. EVERY Thai pop song is about love. EVERY SINGLE ONE! It’s kinda a running joke between my Thai friend Nam Pueng and I when listening to Thai music– I say “hey, I bet I can guess what this song is about!” to which she replies “oh yeah? What?” Of course, I say “love!,” and Pueng acts completely surprised– how could I possible know?! Maybe my Thai is improving. Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.

Like I said, Pattaya is a tourist trap. It’s a resort town, set on the gulf of Thailand. The water is blue, but the beaches are anything but prestine, and are completely crowded with restuarants and the like. It also happens to be the sex capitol of Thailand, growing out of frequeny American soldier R&R patronage during the civil war (whereas the rest of the sex industry in Thailand is a hold-over from Thailand’s polygamy that persisted until 1911 or so). It’s amazing, really. It’s like a giant red-light district. –streets and streets lined with a go go bars, gay bars, go go clubs, lengerie shops, and scantily clad women… Eesh. It makes Las Vegas look like a good place to raise a family, by comparison. I kid you not.

On balance, it’s just overrun with American fast food chains and bars. God, the bars-per-capita here must be the highest in the world. I should hope so.

Anyhow. I’m enjoying the trip– as always, it’s good to get out of Bangkok. And, not only are the people on the debate team generally well-informed and fluent English speakers, they also happen to more fond of good food than anyone else I’ve ever met (with the possible exception of Doug Frank… but think of DF times nine with Thai cuisine..!). I’ve had a couple wonderful meals, to say the least.

As I commented to Meekyung earlier, the ultimate irony of this is that the members of the debate group must think that I’m a morning person– an early riser– because, for some reason, I haven’t been able to sleep in when around them. So this morning, like the trip to Kanchanaburi, I was already gone before anyone else woke up, but I suspect I’ll probably be missed if I don’t return presently, so I’d best be off. Until later–

Last night was profoundly stupid. We’ll see how things pan out.

But one positive thing did come out of last night: proof that, to Asians, all white people look the same. Location: Santika (another flashy, anonymous Bangkok worn-red-carpet-entrance club, the high-end sound, dark jam-packed rooms of gyrating dancers, pulsing with the throbbing bass of the DJ’s turntabled Top-40… actually, there was a band last night night in one of the rooms who, dressed like Thai school girlsw, did an impressive Eminem cover…). Evidence: after unsucessfully trying to duck past the bouncers checking IDs at the door, I borrowed Gilbert’s ID, walked around for five minutes, and then came back and tried using Gilbert’s ID. Picture Gilbert: stocky build. Black, curly hair. Brown eyes. But–! White skin! We’re a spitting image of each other, I tell ya. Well, it got me into the club, anyway.

Here’s the first half of my photos from Cambodia:
Photos from Cambodia

I actually have all of them uploaded, but Gallery screwed something up, and I haven’t had to time to figure out exactly what. I’ll post when I get the rest of the photos added to the gallery.

I got out of class at 5:00PM today and headed to the library to do some research for my upcoming art history paper that is due… tomorrow. Unfortunately, the library was closed. As it had been since 4:00. CLOSED!! Most days it closes at 8:00PM, which is still ridiculously early, but… for the next couple weeks it’s “October break?” So what does that mean? The librarians get a “break?” A break from what? It’s not like they do much in the first place. Not that there are many books in the library anyway, but even a few books is more books than I have. It is, of course, a little difficult to write a paper when my art class doesn’t have a book…

Of course, when they guard their library like a penitentiary, I can understand why they feel they need a break from providing the students with an exceedingly basic university service. I mean really. It makes perfect sense. Hell, it’s silly to think that there should even be a library at a university. Or that a library should have a lot of books. Or that a student should be able to check books out.

Ar. I feel like I’ve regressed. For a good month there, I was doing really well with all the cultural idiosyncrasies that endlessly annoy me. But since my return from Cambodia, I’ve been in veritable rage for a week now. Sheesh.

ya hey.

So… I’m chilling in the coolest internet cafe ever, sipping a tasty americano, playing yahoo pool against nam pueng. Seriously– this place is swank. It’s a converted house, now equipped with comfy couches, modern art, good tunes (American, of course), neon, and fast, beautiful comptuers. Yeah, it’s nice to be using a decent keyboard with a 19″ LCD… this is quite a discovery.

today was spent in the first day of the World Youth Alliance’s (www.wya.org) Bangkok training session. The afternoon was spent in a simulation of a typical UN informal informal (no stutter). And really… god, I just need a drink. =) Heh. Most of the afternoon was spent arguing the functional differences between “manageable” and “sustainable.” It’s a 15 page bill, and in two hours, we almost made it past page one. Ug. I have the most sincere sympathy for delegates from less affluent nations, who get locked into 24 hour negotiations. More affluent nations often have delegation teams of 5 to to 500(!!) delegates, whereas poorer nations often have as few as one. Just one of the many blackball techniques used in the UN to force nations into accepting policy… force them to negiate for 24 hours straight, and then wait until 3:00AM when the translators are gone to bring up the most critical parts of a bill…

yeah. the un isn’t nearly the utilitarian, idealistic organization it seems. on balance, it tries to do good. or something.

more thoughts later. I’m running out of ‘net cafe minutes. tomorrow we’ll see if we can get past page two.

Ha. I don’t know whether to disparage Dell over my laptop’s second motherboard failure, or to praise them for their prompt and hassle free service. Regardless, I feel bad for them– at at least $400 per, the two motherboards that Dell has replaced certainly has cost them a pretty penny. But, alas, I don’t believe it’s through any fault of my own that the motherboards have failed (both times it’s been a very gradual thing, thankfully!). Overall, I’ve been very pleased with my Dell purchase. Strange, yes, that I should be so pleased given consideration to two hardware failures, but when functioning correctly, my laptop has been wonderful, and when on the brink, Dell’s service has been top notch. No hassles. No many-hour conversations on the phone with tech support, going through stupid and pointless tests. No waiting on hold to talk to a tech-support agent. And all my tech support agents (even here in Thailand, to a lesser or greater extent) have spoken fluent English (even though one American that I talked to didn’t know where Bangkok was. “Bangkok? Is that in India?” / “No, it’s in Thailand.” / “Oh. … Is Thailand in Europe?” / “Yes. It’s a small, war-torn facist state between France and Germany. You wouldn’t believe how many people don’t know where it is.” Heh. No, but the last is what I SHOULD have said!).

The long and short of it is that, once again, I have a happily functioning laptop.

Additionally, I’m feeling quite a bit better, although I’m not sure if that will be the case after tomorrow’s mid-term. =)

Those pictures are still in the works. I hate to say it, but I miss resnet– I miss having a connection that would let me upload 250mb+ in five minutes, rather than 50 minutes or… on dial-up, 5 days…