Sex "education", anyone?

Shhhh....we don't talk about sex! But what do we do with raging teenage hormones? Fortunately there is a TV program called Choo Ruk Choo Rot on Thai channel that "teaches" sex education to high school students. It starts at around 1 am in the morning. (Would most students be in bed by then?). It features 2 hosts and a doctor who go around different high schools around Bangkok in the hope to give some sex education to the youngsters. Students asked questions such as "how can I tell if he really loves me?" and was answered with with "you are still very young. If he really loves you, he will wait until you are married to have sex". They raise questions such as "when all your friends have a significant other, would you

a) get one for yourself 

b) stay single

Two teams gave their side of the debate with answers such as, "of course we should get one ourselves too because we don't want to be lonely", or "get a partner and we can do our homework together". Haha...yeah, right. Another team pointed out that they should stay single because they are good looking and they still have lots of choices in the market. At the end the doctor will sum up the lesson that was supposed to be "learned" on that topic. He indicated that "if you are still in school and not earning any money yet, you cannot bring anything into a relationship yet. Wait until you have finished college and have a job before considering having a significant other because no one wants someone who has nothing to offer." Wow...a very insightful lesson here. So doc thinks money is EVERYTHING? Nice advice. Do they still count on the "just don't do it"?

We all know teenagers ARE having sex. How will this "sex education" help teenagers prevent unwanted pregnancies or getting STDs? Is this an adequate education for young people who are exploring sexuality? What happened to educating them on how to correctly put on a condom? Where are all the gory pictures of STD infections? Birth control pills, perhaps? By having it aired after midnight and packed with not-so-educational questions and answers, this sure is a weird way of teaching sex education. No, let's make that lame with capital L.

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What A Waste of Such A COOL Idea!

"FOOD. FASHION. FEAR."


That's the slogan of Mansion 7, a so-called "thriller boutique mall" in Ratchadapisek 14 Road. The concept seemed to be so weird that it's cool --- a boutique mall decked out like a haunted mansion, divided into three zones: 


Neglected Garden Zone - for retail shops
Playground Zone - with scary-looking restaurants and an open area for thrilling games
The Dark Mansion - a ghost house (180 baht to enter)


The website looks freakin' COOL. I was sold.


Today I went to check it out. 

OK, the ghoulish, twisted, purple building looked like something that belonged in a nightmare:

I could already feel cold sweat starting to form at the nape of my neck.

Imagine my horror (pun totally intended) when I realized that the building turned out to be like a warehouse. WITH NO AIRCON.

Let me repeat that: 

NO AIRCON. Right here in tropical Thailand. 

With temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celcius. 

And humidity so high you feel like breathing underwater.

It was a SAUNA in there. A sauna without the fluffy towel and bathrobe.

Oh sure the retail shops were all airconditioned. 

But it was sweltering hot outside these shops. 

There were also areas inside the building where some sunlight actually reached:

Yea, the sunlight made all the (supposedly) spooky-looking decor look TOTALLY LAME. 

Isn't a haunted place s'posed to be D-A-R-K?!

Worse, the Playground Zone had all these (non-free) games that were supposed to be played... IN THE NON-AIRCONED, HUMID BANGKOK AIR. 


Imagine playing these games in sauna-like humidity:

The "How Many Pots of Sweat Can You Produce" Game

The "How Far Can You Go Before Your Sweat Short-Circuits the Electrified Metal" Game

The "Billiards With Salty Sweat In Your Eyes" Game

The "Let's See Who'll Slide Off the Sweat First" Game

And look! Even this far inside, some sunlight STILL got in:

That's right. Those hands ain't lookin' any scary. 

In fact, they just look pathetic under the bright sunlight.

There's a very spooky, ominous-looking "moon" hanging from the ceiling:

Unfortunately, looking up will just remind you that you're in a cheapo warehouse WITH NO AIRCON, sweating like a pig. 

Sure, there are giant fans circulating the air, but when the air from outside is thick like butter, all you'll feel is breezes of muggy, hot air.

By this time, I was already sweating profusely that we were forced to go inside one of the restaurants:

I asked the waiter why there's no aircon outside. 
He said, "Erm, there's just no aircon." DUH.
"But it's so HOT outside!" I whined. He could only smile sheepishly.


He added that at 6pm, purple lights will be turned on.


OK, so people will look purple at 6pm. 
BUT STILL SWEATING BULLETS. Fabulous.


I thought the whole idea of a scary-looking mansion is to give people the CHILLS?! 
Hell, I ain't feelin' no chills whatsoever. I was feelin' more like I'm gonna get heat rash soon.

Maybe the reason why there's no aircon is to lure visitors to enter the Dark Mansion?

It sure looks creepy enough.

This haunted mansion is supposedly modeled after the mansion of (fictional) Lord Ratchada's house, where he, trying to bring back his daughter from death, conducted horrifying experiments on human victims. 

There's even a TV explaining the legend of Lord Ratchada in front of the Dark Mansion:

But honestly, how many times are visitors going to keep coming back once they've tried the Dark Mansion? Haunted houses are fun only the FIRST time around. 

What is so upsetting is that the whole idea of a haunted mansion as a mall is reeeeally awesome. 


Mansion 7 has SO MUCH POTENTIAL. 

Look at this restaurant called "Blood Moon":

Notice the "blood" seeping from under the door? FREAKY!

And check out this creepy-looking wheelchair and poster set:

YIKES!

There's even a Harry-Potter-looking "Mansion 7 Gift Shop":

I swear, this whole place is being wasted.


Just get some aircons, for Pete's sake!!!


Bangkokians get really sluggish in the heat. Imagine your pretty date getting all sweaty and uncomfortable instead of hugging you tightly in fright. 


What a waste of opportunity.


I even saw a foreign couple come in. They seemed very excited outside (and even took pics of the giant purple "claw" at the entrance). But once they went inside (and started sweating buckets), they spent max 3 minutes to walk around, and simply left. They didn't even open their wallets.


Is the management trying to save money? But an article in "The Nation" claimed that this place had a budget of 170 million baht - that ain't chump change! 

I understand that economic times are tough nowadays, but foregoing AIRCON is unforgivable!!!!!!!!!

Notes to Mansion 7 management:

- PLEASE bring in some aircons to up the CHILL factor.

- seal the whole building for climate-control. Make sure no sunlight seeps in. Haunted mansions are meant to be DARK.

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Weird Thai Picture of the Day: Tree Storage

Weird but true:
Here in Thailand, it's not just squirrels and birds who like to stuff things into trees.

Case in point:

No cabinet? NO PROBLEM!

(Any tree with branches will do).


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Weird Thai News of the Day: Swallow Thai Worms to Cure Ulcer

What would you do if you have ulcerative colitis, a medical condition which causes you to bleed every time you take a dump? 

This ain't no laughing matter. CNN did an article about an American man who went to extreme lengths for his health - fly halfway around the world to Thailand so he could swallow trichuris sius worms, parasites that live inside pigs' intestines (read the whole article on CNN: Man finds extreme healing eating parasitic worms). 

What's weirder than that? We-hell, the reason this man had to fly to Thailand was because the "worm therapy" wasn't approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). So the patient had to contact researchers from other less developed countries and lo and behold, he found a researcher in THAILAND (of course) who was willing to help him - she got the worm eggs from the SHIT of an infected 11-year-old girl. The man had to clean and take care of the eggs himself, and when they were mature, he ate them (*cue retching noises*).


First he ate 500 eggs, then 1,000. He saw improvement within three months. This was in 2004, and the guy's cured now. NO MORE BLOODY POO POO. And he escaped a fate worse than death - having to carry a poo poo pouch for the rest of his life!


Weird but true. The "treatment" might be unconventional, but the field of medicine wouldn't progress if there were no people willing to try "alternative" methods!


Hell, if I were shitting blood I'd try ANYTHING.


Still think this is disgusting? Check out this video clip on how to make this unsavory activity more appealing (the guy on the clip is totally unrelated to the guy whose story appeared above):

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Supa' Dupa' BLINGED OUT Buddha in Bangkok

Many foreign visitors to Thailand are familiar with the most famous Buddhist temples in Bangkok: Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) and Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) usually come to mind.


But Wat Traimit, located in Chinatown, deserves a special mention because this temple houses a very unique SOLID GOLD colossal Buddha statue. We're talking about a blindingly shiny seated Buddha statue weighing over 5 tons!

This is how the temple looks like:

(the golden Buddha statue is at the very top)

On the way to the top (yes, devotees have to climb up stairs), there is also a museum which tells the amazing story of this golden Buddha statue:

It originated in Ayutthaya (Thailand's former capital), but was covered in plaster right before the Burmese army came and ransacked Ayutthaya. After Bangkok was declared the new capital, this statue was kept in a nondescript temple because people thought it wasn't worth much. However, in the 1950s, it fell and broke when it was being moved to another temple. The workers who were tasked with the moving job were horrified, thinking that it was a bad omen and ran away. However, the next day a Buddhist monk came to see the broken statue because he had a dream that it was actually a special statue. The monk then noticed that there was something yellow and shiny underneath the broken plaster - - - GOLD!

Obviously, then the Buddha statue was deserving a new (more special) temple, and now it is housed in this fabulous-looking temple.

The museum even has dioramas retelling the story:

And also original fragments of the statue's platform:

And the rope and pulley used to carry the statue (which broke):

And of course, pieces of the plaster covering the golden statue:

Believe it or not, this golden Buddha statue made it to the Guinness Book of Records as "the scared object with the highest intrinsic value" (37.1 million pounds in 2003):

Here are some pics of the inside of the temple (and the awe-inspiring golden Buddha statue):

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'Til Death Do Us Part

How Long Can You Hold Your Breath?

Let's Confuse The Evil Spirits

There are many choices of stickers to decorate your precious rides. But there is one particular odd one that is not used for beautification. It is the sticker that says the color of that vehicle, but does not match the actual color of it. Confused? Here are some examples:

"This car is red"

"This car is black"

"This car is green"











"And why do they have to do that?" You may think. Thai spirits are believed to be color blind, but obviously they are literate. Yes, that is the belief. It is also believed that certain people's luck or "duang" in Thai, go or do not go with certain colors. Let's say you have a black car, but the fortune teller "mho doo" says that black is a bad color and you match with yellow. Oh, No! Now what do you do?? Get a new car? Get it repainted yellow? No...you get a sticker that says "this car is yellow" and stick it at the back of your car, of course! You can call it "khae kret". It is also believed that if a vehicle has had an accident, by "stating" that it is another colored car, the "accident spirits" will think it is a new car and will not bring the driver more accidents. But this kind of sticker is not really popular with private sedans. Biggest fans are taxis and pick up trucks.

Photos from: www.dek-d.com, www.oknation.net, www.siamxsite.com

And You Think Only Rappers Are Obsessed With Sexuality

Tucked away in a Phuket, Phra Nang beach, there is a cave that fishermen like to visit and leave offerings such as fruits, flowers and above all phallus symbols (Phalad Khik). The legend has it that it is the home of a mystical sea princess who can grant you success, wealth and fertility. But the phallus symbol is also used in restaurants and shops shrines too. What does that mean? A phallus is usually associated with fertility, but as you can see, many businesses has great belief in it to bring them wealth more than fertility. Some phallus amulets are encrypted with spells/mantra. Find it weird? Well, that's Thailand for ya!


Phallus Cave, Phuket



Lots and lots of phallus

Amulet

Photos from: www.thai-amulet.com, www.photpedia.com, www.phuket.com

2 Voices

Weird but True

gig, gik, kik

"Gig, gik or kik"... anyway you would want to spell it. What is it exactly?? It is a weird Thai virus when someone who is more than a friend, but not exactly your girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife. It's been around for ages, but the name gives it a "hipper" touch. So is it just a lover? A fling? The "other" person? The one you're cheating with? It pretty much can mean any of those things. There are many levels of "gig-gik-kik"ness. You can have gig-gik-kik even when you're single, but not wanting to commit. There is no specific word to describe it, but it is so common in Thailand that it's alarming. Let's just break it down to make it easier to understand.


Levels & Symptoms of having a GGK (gig-gik-kik):

• Level 1: Harmless flirting with the usual phone calls, texting, MSN or BB (Blackberry Messenger).
• Level 2: Movies, dinners, clubbing and "hanging out".
• Level 3: Holding hands, hugging and probably some kissing.
• Level 4: Everything from level 1-3 and beyond.

Maybe you can call it "friends with benefits". But when you're asked if you have a GGK make sure you explain your level and symptoms because honestly, Thai people still don't have a specific understanding of the word. Everything varies from person to person (which mutation you carry or would like to carry). All they know is if you have a GGK u are up for some fun without commitment (level of "fun" also varies). What happens when you're caught having a GGK? Well, as far as I've seen, most people get a little upset but it's not a deal breaker. They'd say "it's just a GGK, it'll go away soon. It's not permanent". Attached or unattached, just like the flu, seems like the GGK virus is here to stay. It's contagious and can highly mutate if you don't have a good dose of self control.

Thai Dance VS Michael Jackson

A rare look at the great unique talent of Thai people.

Fashion Fail

The Korean craze has taken Thailand by storm. From their tv series, plastic surgery, singers to fashion. Even Thai men are going to great lengths to copy boyband fashions; specially the band called Big Bang. But sometimes their fashion sense just don't match up. Here is an example of a super fashion fail:

May I remind you that Bangkok is around 35-40 celsius. Thailand also does NOT have winter like Korea does. In a humid May night at an outdoor wedding reception, this wannabe fashionable man was trying to be "hip" with his unusual fashion choice of "Big Bang" fashion. Uh...FAIL! Let's break down his great failness:

Fail 1: too much gunk in his stiff "I-just-saw-a-ghost" hair.
Fail 2: uh...what's that?? Let's just call it a "neck donut" (do you really need that in an outdoor summer event in BANGKOK??)
Fail 3: ok, he chose a jacket without lining, so it won't be TOO hot. BUT can he at least iron it first?
Fail 4: I think it is a tad bit too tight for him, don't cha think??
Fail 5: Uhhh...I think the tightness of the pants can be bad for his manhood.
Fail 6: the faded color of blue (from too much washing) does not match his jacket.
Fail 7: to match the puffiness of his white "neck donut"...white puffy sneakers! To a wedding!!
Ta-daaaa.....a complete Bangkok Fashion Fail!!

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Primo Posto, Kao Yai

Primo Posto is a unique coffee, wine, ice cream shop and restaurant put together in a cozy Mediterranean style scenery. It is also often a destination for people to just take lots and lots of pictures. Kao Yai is on a hill, so you can expect a cooler breeze than Bangkok. During some time of the year, it actually becomes very cold (well, for Thai people and other Asians). Many music VDOs, photoshoots and TV dramas were shot here. But you don't need to be a professional photographer to get pretty shots here. Pictures look good from any angle here. You can also run around the back among the vineyard. The air is clean, beautiful scenery and the food is actually good! If you're looking for a little escape from the busy capital of Bangkok, stop by Primo Posto. It is not a long way drive.

Photos from: www.coffeedd.com, www.folktravel.com, www.banksanook.com

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