se7enteen

to those who said life starts at seventeen, it really does.

Wish listed

If there's one thing i absolutely HATE about living in Bangkok is its notorious traffic. owing to poor planning, ultra fast growth, in-migration or whatever, getting around in the city gets more and more hideous with each passing year. yesterday on my way back from Central Ladprao I got stuck in a cab which in turn was stuck among other cars on the street for NO REASON. ok, there may have been some reason. it was 6PM, hence rush hour blah blah blah. but isn't it ABSURD that in 30 minutes we couldn't move from point A to point B which was literally 20 meters in length i kid you not! all i could do was listen to the chaffeur bitching mindlessly and watch the meter go up from 53 baht to 73 baht. a distance of 20 meters in some 30 minutes are you SERIOUS? it normally costs me 65-70 baht to get from there to here but last night i had to pay 103 baht. it's not so much the money as the general ridiculousness of the situation that made me flip.

Solution? I need to buy a car. And to sound absurdly bourgeois and disgust communists, socialists, and Buddhists alike, I need a BWM. yay euro cars. so i checked the price tag on www.bmw.co.th. the cheapest model is BWM 3 Series Sedan which is graciously priced at, can i have some drum roll, THB 2,400,000. Dead. That means, if i succeed in hunting down the world's most generous donor (i.e. my parents) and make them pay the highest down payment of 30% of the original price, I would only need to pay the rest of 2,400,000 - 719,700 = 1,680,000ish. To make the figure less horrendous and myself less likely to faint, i should do the longest installment payment for oh god 60 months (5 years?!). And that will boil down to... 33,446 baht per month (VAT included). And where do i find this appalling amount on a monthly basis you tell me!

But seriously can you find a better looking car? I thought I would eventually get a black or greyish one but I've seen too many of those in the streets of Bangkok already and of course i want to be different! Look at the sparkling smoky varnish and the sleek design. if it is not the vehicular impersonation of Glamour, i dont know what is! Since a picture is worth a thousand words or so goes the saying, I'll give you three pictures and those are worth more than three thousand words still!

More than straights and bends.

The exterior of the BMW 3 Series Sedan.
One can learn a great deal about the BMW 3 Series simply by looking at it. Follow the line of the silhouette, and its remarkable power becomes tangibly evident. Rest your eyes on the individual details, and the elegance of each one reveals itself. Even when it is motionless, the short overhangs and characteristic wedge shape express sporting dynamics. But who wants to experience the BMW 3 Series Sedan only when it's standing still?

- - -

Man i'm sure the person who wrote the description was some sort of art historian.

From what i've noticed, people here

1. walk way too slowly, way too leisurely.
2. block the escalator, they don't stand in one line.
3. eat too little protein, too much sugar, and of course too much coconut milk.
4. drink too little water.
5. seem to be snacking on something all the time.

Thinking out loud.

I have to write an article (maybe two) for Wallpaper*. I kind of want to do the lay-out, too. Hope it's not too complicated. And three seconds ago I was contacted by a friend in London who is the editor of a UK-based Thai students journal. She asked to write an article about my "experience in Paris." Quite an honour but ridiculously open ended. we'll see.

Oh and congratulations to Miss Thailand on Best National Costume!

The future is urban but what urban form will it take?

It's pretty definite. I want to be an urban professional. At this point I couldn't care less about UCL's decision mostly because I have no idea what's going on at the moment. But it's starting to dawn clearer and clearer on me that i'm not suited. It's not like I'm not meant to study Urban Design (and I don't really believe in destiny in the first place). It's more like I'm not prepared to study it. A lot of people involved in design of the built environment (a fancy term that refers to the study and practice of built space and place-making e.g. architecture, landscape, planning, etc) were surprised that I wanted to apply at all, considering that Urban Design is at the apex of the design study paramid whose base is the knowledge of architecture, landscape architecture, and planning combined - none of which I possess. That's why every graduate programme in Urban Design stipulates a first degree in such disciplines. And the fact that UCL in fact takes in a few students from other disciplines, they most likely come from engineering, environmental design, or geography. so why was i a fool to believe that i would be one of those, i still do not know. To be fair, I was vehemently forewarned by my cousin. But my dogged nature was to proud to bow.

For the past few days I've been doing research on what kind of professional studies that will allow me to become some sort of design professional (in the built environment, of course, not in textile, theatre, or jewellry.) I've learned a little more about myself. The background in the social sciences has made up a lot of me and i'm much more well-versed in this area than any other. Therefore, instead of jumping right into urban design that presupposes tremendous versatility in design and visual representation, i should look more into urban planning that calls for a balance of social policy, urban sociology, and design, the combination of which is used to turn space into place.

My family is a bit annoying. I know it was a huge mistake (though a deliberate one) to apply to one sole programme for which i am clearly underqualified. But what my family wants me to do is take the offer of any programme, do it, get a degree and come back home and be whatever fucking designer i want to be. why can't they understand how much i want and need to be trained at UCL which is the best school of architecture and planning in the UK? Ok, in architecture they might be tied with the AA, but in planning design, UCL is clear winner. But this time around, older and wiser, i'll apply to a few programmes at UCL as well as other schools. It's one thing to not compromise your standard, but if it comes down to it i need to be prepared to take the next best choice.

So yea, it's official. i'll submit a handfule of applications in october-november (sending it out in late-march or early-april is a hard learnt lesson.) But between now and then is the real world. Hello world :)

random shite

this post is going to be utterly useless if you're looking for something healthy for your brain. it's not even remotely interesting but i'm going to go ahead with it anyhow considering that it is the kind of thing my head is obsessed about with each passing day. ok, down to business. i get various remarks on what i look like. i get a lot of hong kong, singaporean, vietnamese, and filipino, with the first two being the most common. when i was out shopping with my friends in Beijing, more often than not we all would be asked to identify ourselves since obviously we were not 当地人 ("locals") and more importantly, the group would usually consist of more than one Asian ethnicities. one saleslady said i looked "asian american" - my natural response to which is wtf (except that it was that kind of shifty-eye kind of response. i'm not rude in general, mind you.) And this shoes saleslady made a guess with much certainty that i was from either "xinjiapo" (singapore) or "xianggang" (hong kong). one of the teachers in the program commented that my "style" (whatever she meant by that) was "very hong kong." A friend from WashU also said that i resembled one of her Singaporean friends back at WashU. aaand... my Chinese teacher at Brown had thought i was from Singapore until the end of the year when i had to explain (for the 439th time) that i am in fact from Thailand. And recently, a friend ran into this HK actor (on tv of course) and told me to google him. which i did. and oh shit. what horror. Tse Kwan Ho dude, you take the cake.

To look at the better side (not that there's any bad side to this in the first place), i can now cruise Asia freely feeling super assimiliated and accepted as such. oh who am i kidding. i love being a foreigner. like i said, it's not easy to be me.

I'll watch the Miss Universe 2008 pageant tomorrow morning live from Vietnam. I hope the panel will have eyes as trenchantly sharp as the Beijing salesladies and be able to tell China, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia apart. man i am random.

China

Malaysia

Vietnam

Singapore

and give it up to... THAILAND!

小籠包

I like chinese food so much it's not funny. i generously allowed myself to gain five whole kilos during my two months in Beijing last year. my cheeks were much chubbier than they already had been becos man is Chinese food there so awesome. i'm a sad excuse for being Thai, for i despite spicy food to death. and thanks goodness I live in Bangkok where good chinese food is usually within a walking distance. ok i lie, how about a reasonable driving distance? so it's never a problem for me when i have a sudden craving for chinese.

One of the fast food-style Chinese restaurants that i like to frequent is Shanghai Xiao Long Bao. They have a bunch of branches throughout Bangkok and fortunately a few of them are conveniently located close to where i usually find myself at. malls, that is. Needless to say their specialty is xiao long bao (小籠包), literally "little basket bun" or as i prefer to call or illustrate it to the uninitiated "dumplings with soup inside." The chain has been around for a while and attracting more and more curious eaters who want to find out what a soup dumpling is like. And recently, the restaurant introduced a new creation nicely adjusted to Thai tastebuds by injecting Tom Yum (Thai style hot & sour soup) in place of normal clear broth. Of course, I didn't hesitate to order a basket...much to my disappointment ack... Thai people are too creative for me, what with satay burger at McDo's or Tom Yum pizza at Pizza Hut. I dunno, I just prefer the original xiao long bao with normal soup inside. Thai spicy soup doesn't go well with Chinese dumplings dammit!(although i gotta say the McDo's satay chicken burger is rockstar. so was the pork burger from years ago that used sticky rice as bun. too fresh.)

Anyways, so on top of the xiao long bao we also ordered a bunch of dishes to eat along, the photographic evidence of which is as follows. but guess who was enough of a retard to forget to take a sole picture of, uhm, xiao long pao? ok lah, i'll make up next time. on a sort of related note, i was the only one at the table to eat rice with chop sticks! a habit i picked up from China. overall, i found the food that day to be unusually salty. i don't see myself going back again until...i have my next xiao long bao craving attack. click for full effect.

My pad thai plate revisited

As promised below are pictures of the ultimate best pad thai on the planet and the woman who makes it possible. click for full effect.

Legit.

up close

Maman et moi

Tao buying lemonade on Thayer St.

A day in Bangkok

I can say that if i am in Thailand most of my time will be spent at the hang out place of Siam Square. not only is it arguably the biggest shopping/eating center where trends are set and ideas bred, but it's also conveniently located close to my high school and a college campus . so each afternoon when school is over you will see swarms of kids in crisp white uniforms head towards Siam Square where they stop by to eat, shop, and flaunt their youthfulness. i too grew up here.

But after all these years of teenaged anxiety and pubescent romance, i didn't get to eat at Baan Khun Mae Restaurant until yesterday. Well, I had every reason not to since they seem to cater specifically to tourists and the food is obviously pretty Americanized. I showed up an hour late because I wasn't feeling well and had slept in. By the time i got there, they had finished nearly all the food which i didn't mind at all, since i could get all that anywhere for cheaper and most definitely better-tasting. So i ordered a plate of shrimp fried rice with garlic rice - to no one's surprise. therefore, my first-time presence at the restaurant was perfunctory and the fried rice was strictly utilitarian. but i was kind of sad still that i didn't get to eat one of their specialties:

The fried rice was 78 Baht (overpriced). And the rest of the table paid 280 Baht each (10 people). so yeah, the next time i'll come back ever again i would most likely be with non-Thai visitors who i don't want to disillusion from the "authentic thai cuisine" they glorify back home. one culture shock crisis averted.

Another thing you can do at Siam Square is karaoke which is part of every Asian pop culture. I went sing k a couple several times when i was in the US, but to be honest it was never as fun as at home. Back in the USA, some people who go sing k or are ostensibly "dragged" to go seem to treat the activity as a less serious matter; they treat it along with things like ping-pong and badminton,much less seriously than, say, tennis or sudoku. of course, i should not judge what is better but i can make no mistake about what i find more comfortable. Oh please, who doesn't want to sing to Bye Bye Bye and jump up and down like pre-SexyBack Justin Timberlake? (Trivia: lots of karaoke places in Beijing are open until 6AM and serve buffet-style food at intervals.)

Today karaoke in Bangkok is taken to the next level when bowling is incorporated. Yes, they stick a karaoke station and two bowling lanes together, successfully eliminating the now passé dilemma of "should we go bowling or k'ing?", for you can now enjoy the two choices or cater to two crowds of people who enjoy different things at the same time.


If choosing between bowling or k'ing cannot be easily settled, there is at least one thing that everyone can agree on. Thai hot pot of the chain restaurant MK seems to be everyone's favorite. As i was bidding my friends goodbye because i had been kind of ill (fever) and tired (unsatisfactory lunch) and dragging all day, one of them asked if i wanted to get dinner at MK first, to which i said yes without much hesitation if at all. I've been back for a month and yesterday was the first time, so i was stoked. My family would go every so often when i was in high school, since like i said, it's everybody's favorite. everyone has the choice of ordering whatever meat and veggie they like to boil to perfection and then drench in the restaurant's super savory dressing and then eat. some of the stuff we ordered includes: roast duck, BBQ pork, roast pig, assorted fish balls and fish cakes, assorted veggies, thinly sliced pork, shrimp, eggs, and muchhhh more. the quality is great, quantity very filling and most importantly the bill very wallet-friendly. that's how i went home with a happy stomach.



note to self

• Adobe InDesign would make a post like this a much easier, more enjoyable, and less time-consuming experience. learn it.
  
• i just realised how majorly i suck at taking photos in indoor lighting. gotta do sumth'n. below is a picture of myself from that day. sexy much?