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Perpetual War For Perpetual Peace vs Hegemony Or Survival

Today at the cookhouse, there were some questions asked. Somehow it led to me talking about this book, Perpetual War For Perpetual Peace. Heavy stuff that, as a fellow comrade-in-arms puts it, will be a conflict of interest. It's written by Gore Vidal. 'nuff said.

I recently chanced upon another book with a similar theme - Hegemony Or Survival by Noam Chomsky. Again, the author will already reveal the direction this book is heading. No, it is not about linguistics or generative grammar.

"You can kill him. Just don't let me see the blood."

Hopefully I can finish the Noam Chomsky book, as well as Sam Harris' The End Of Faith before the year is out.

Whim sic al i ty

Found this weblog with quirky but really nice drawings!

Apparently the girls sell their wares at Plaza Singapura...

Discovered through garden of forking paths.

Lin Bao Ling is a GUY!

OK. I've got some explanation to do.

Last year, V and I attended her gf's wedding. That was on 4th Dec 06. On my way to the banquet room, I passed a series of paintings which totally caught my attention. It was only when I excused myself to leave for the toilet that I managed to get a better look at them.

They were by Lin Bao Ling and when I got home, I did a google search and found some information. Blogged about it.

I did mention I was distracted by the waitresses at the lobby bar dressed up as santarinas. If only children who have been nice get toys from santa, the santarinas are there to make sure adults who are young at heart will never get any. Cause they get naughty thoughts with these santa little helpers hahahaha....

Recently I attended yf's brother's wedding. The paintings by him were no longer there. Instead it was another collection of rather interesting art works using acrylic on ceramic tiles. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the artist...

And today, I have the great honour of having the artist to visit my humble little blog. How did I know? Well..........

Cause Lin Bao Ling blogged about how pissed off HE was when HE read that I had referred HIM as a SHE/HER.

Hahahaha, sorry dude. Had no idea...

So I did the unsavoury thing by commenting on his blog and asking how he price his paintings because I did say his art can grace my wall when I do get a place of my own. It'll make a really good story to tell guests of the house.

here is his blog.

Freitag vs Crumpler vs Lowepro (it all makes no sense)

I bought a Crumpler recently. Well, not that recent. Probably about 3 months ago when the Wheelock branch was having a sale of some sort. The bags on display in the left side of the store had "LAST PIECE" written tagged to them.

Last week when I walked past, I saw the bag I bought in there with the same tag. So, you can tell their sales pitch kinda work on me. I thought it'd be nice to carry my brown crumpler while V carries her red crumpler and be seen traipsing around town together - a pair of messengers finding love in the city. Kinda.

I bought a Lowepro Stealth Reporter D100 AW before I left for Phuket to protect my new camera and the lens.

There is this debate in clubsnap where people were discussing the merits and demerits of Crumpler and Lowepro camera bags. Most talked about superior padding of Crumpler as well as the wide selection of colours. There was also the added advantage of the Crumpler bag not looking like a camera bag. In future, I intend to travel with my crumpler (avoid drawing attention to the fact that I am carrying a camera) but with the camera bucket from Lowepro placed into it. Sort of like best of both worlds. Sorta.

On the topic of bags, I came across this blog entry on fashion nation. It was talking about Freitag - a brand of bags from Zurich. Recently a colleague came to work with a Freitag bag and we pretty much got a little excited. For about 4 minutes and 46 seconds. Mainly it was because of the street cred. Because before that, we were talking about someone else who wore BAPE t-shirts and Supreme (New York underground brand) caps to work. Then there was the question of where to get Fred Perry polos. This struck me as really weird cause when I was in uni, Fred Perry was such a duh brand. How the streed cred came about I dunno. Must be linked to British music. I kinda know where to get Fred Perry stuff (The Asylum at ann siang) but didn't want to say too much.

But guess what?

The guy with the Freitag bag turns up for work the next day with a Fred Perry polo.

Hahahahaha....anyway...

more on Freitag bags....you can get them from the asylum too...

The shop in Zurich doesn't even use much new material. It's just a couple of containers being slapped together. It's going for 140 Swiss Francs on the Freitag online shop....it's amazing what somebody else's unwanted garbage can cost when given a boost of hipness and cool smart marketing.

Mistake!

Haha, I made a complete blunder for not reading the flyer properly. It was their album launch but not that the band was actually going to be there....

I did turn up in the end, chatted with Ping for a few minutes. She was surprised that I was there alone. The music was great! Lots of indie pop, bubblegum pop and obscure (cause I'm ignorant) pop from japan and france...I didn't stay all the way at bbbc.

The rest of the people were going to be at Zouk for Armin van Buuren.

Which was where I eventually landed.

Nice to have mong and her cousin lawrence around. They can get into anywhere. Especially lawrence. Getting in through Phuture even though the FULL HOUSE sign was put up was easy peasy for him. No bouncer is too tough for him. Even those of MoS when Tiesto was spinning.

Colleague mentioned that the Top 3 DJs in the world (accordingly to DJ Mag at least) played in Singapore this year and he was suitably impressed by it. Well, this year we've also seen Sasha (Oct 06) and Zoukout there will be Ferry Corsten (Dec 06). Not forgetting PvD (Jan 06). Thing I have with trance is this; I like it when in the midst of a long set, a DJ goes into a breakdown and introduces the wailing vocals of a banshee through his filters, then the trancey 4/4 130bpm comes on. But a night with too much trance can get a little bored with too much what I would call "seaweed" moments. People will start raising their hands in the air, flailing slowly. And really, trance heads are sooooo emotional. They like to savour the music as if it were the nectar of life; eyes closed, hands clasp together blah blah...but this doesn't apply to all. Trance nights are also unbelievably crowded. I used to think that trance is the lowest common denominator and don't really like the crowd that comes with it. I still don't like the crowd. But with the dominance of quality trance (as opposed to cheesey stuff that was blaring out from amped up speakers at pasar malam), my opinion of the music is changing. Not the crowd. Within minutes of AvB's appearance, the jostling crowd near the centre platform witnessed a fight. *yawn* Same at the time when Tiesto was at MoS. Fight also.

Oh, please stop playing Chasing Cars (whateverthefuck remix). It's desperate.

Reticent

It's hard to say that of oneself, especially on a blog that is public and provide feeds. Sometimes I wonder how much of myself is revealed on my blog. There are about 7,973 things in my mind that I wish to scream out loud to nobody in particular. I don't wish to put it out in writing. That's because I remember reading somewhere about "write your memories in sand and your hatred in water". I think there is enough hate around me that will probably drown me once I start writing. Like I said before, hate is not the opposite of love. Apathy is.

You are likely to feel a bit lonely and perhaps even isolated, dear Pisces. Perhaps you think that no one else has the same wild thoughts running through their heads that you do. You'd be surprised to learn how many people actually do. It is unlikely, however, that you will share these thoughts with anyone - especially not at this time. Don't feel like you have to. Just know that you are not alone and that you have a tremendous network of people to support you at all times.

Camera Obscura at BBBC!

Thanks to the wonderful people at bar baa black chic, Camera Obscura will be staging a leg of their album launch party in Singapore!

I've never heard any of their full albums but damn.....at $26 for the one free drink and their latest album package....bbbc is really spoiling us! Rotten!

Following that, Twee! Hahahaha! I love my weekends!

So who wants to go?

Bruno - The Movie

Thanks to anonymous!

The last and only remaining character in Da Ali G Show that has not got a movie to call his own.

Bruno - The Movie.

Ja Ja Ja!

Why won't anyone believe me?!

I would like to think that the characters that Sacha Baron Cohen portray; Borat, Ali G and Bruno, they are all to tease the stereotypes in us.

Like how Borat is this earnest guy who may be weird but we should respect cause it's his culture. And Ali G is this junglist who just can't speak good English, isn't very clever and seems to be almost a criminal. Then there is Bruno, the flamboyant homosexual who seems to have really deep but fey thoughts.

Bascially, they represent the -phobes in us. Xenophobes, ethnophobes and homophobes.
Sacha understands discrimination very profoundly because he is jewish. And to be able to translate that understanding into comic relief is not exactly rocket science. But not something anyone can achieve.

Violence starts at home

I was watching some drama serial on Channel 8. Tonight's episode ended with Allan Wu slapping his wife.

Not Wong Li Lin of course. It's the girl who was playing the character of his wife in the serial.

As Allan Wu's palm, powered by his 24 inch pythons, swings across her face, tearing red hot upon her cheek now swollen and pulsating, I could hear the two sons of my neighbour going,

"Swee!" (beauty!)

"Park liao ho!" (good slap!)

The former is from the mouth of a 14 year old. The latter, from his younger brother who has yet to enter primary school.

Strangely, the mum didn't stop them. Nor did she reprimand them.

I wonder why.

*V says that the actress playing Allan Wu's wife is May Phua. She thinks the wife deserves a slap.

One Dress by Rankin

I totally love the idea; a project using the same dress worn by different women. (look under Gallery - One Dress)

I'd have picked a different dress though. Not that the Gucci dress wasn't sensuous but it might have been a little too "naughty" primarily because of the scooping neckline that didn't do much scooping for some shots.

And it's got this devil of a shot of Devon Aoki which conjures up images of a nymphet, elf, fairie ....

*used without permission from Rankin

Placebos

4our

se7en

2wo


thr33

n9ne

ei8ht


5ive


I gotta breathe to stay alive

&

1

4our

2wo

n9ne

se7en

ei8ht

feels like I'm gonna suffocate.

14
.
.
.
.
.
.
16
....
....
....
22

this skin that turns to blister blue.

Shoulders

toes

and

knees.

I'm 36 degrees

Wow Wow Wee Wah

Kazakhstan Ministry Of Information Presents A Movie Film

Borat's Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan

I still believe that the main reason for making this movie is to laugh at "middle class" americans who know only of their own country.

I don't think it reflects badly on Kazakhstan at all. In fact, people are going to notice that country alot more after the movie is screened.

Singaporean guys are gonna keep saying "I like you", "Nice", "I like", "Make sexy time", "Wow wow wee wah" alot more soon.....

*following this post, my workplace exploded with the use of "hand relief for love explosion" and instead of wow wow wee wah, there was widespread use of the more phoenetically correct and easier to type (sms) "wa wa we wa". Also "yagshemarsh" as a form of greeting, "ching kwee" instead of thank you as well as rubbing of palms together to mean "sexy time".

Indeed, we are 3G.

Just one of the reason why Behaviour is tops

I felt like it should be a Pet Shop Boys Behaviour day. Because I woke up on time to the sound of distant thunder rumbling. Because I went down to wait for a cab early to avoid the morning peak hour surcharge. Because I ended up waiting 30 minutes for cab that never came. Because I was robbed by fuckers who don't have honour and took my cab, thrice. Because when I stepped into my cab I was already $8.50 poorer (the cab hasn't even moved).Because morning surcharges are $2.00, booking fee was $4.00 and the starting metered fare was $2.50. Because my ride was away in Genting.

Only The Wind

It's only the wind
Blowing litter all around
Just a little wind
And the trees are falling down
There's nobody crying
That was yesterday
Inside we're all smiling
Everything's okay

It's only the wind
Blowing cans along the street
Someone's dustbin lid
Playing havoc with the peace
There's nobody hiding
Behind a locked door
And no one's been lying
Cause we don't lie any more

It's only the wind
How it takes you by surprise
Suddenly begins
Then before you know it dies
My hands are not shaking
I don't touch a drop
You must be mistaken
I know when to stop

When life is calmer
I have no doubt
No angry drama
A storm blows itself out

It's only the wind
They say it's getting worse
The trouble that it brings
Haunts us like a curse
My nerves are all jangled
But I'm pulling through
I hope I can handle
What I have to do

When life is calmer
I have no doubt
No angry drama
A storm blows itself out

A storm blows itself out

I'm sorry

Pet Shop Boys

Because it was a saviour. Because it was not named the ultimate English pop album by some for nothing.

Lessons Learnt

Since my midshipman days, lessons learnt have been an important part of my life.
So today's debrief was no different.

Lesson 1: In life you must never have a system with an inherent single point of failure.
That is to say, with all the procedures in place, a complex operation fraught with known and hidden dangers can be reduced into a series of easy to follow step-by-step instructions but may fail because the consequence of an error at critical junctures will lead to complete failure.

Lesson 2: You may learn the wrong lessons from a forced outcome.

That is to say, all the best laid plans coupled with the noblest of intentions, the observations made from a forced outcome must be handled with caution and one must not suffer from the hubris of "doing no wrong" because of unrealistic experience.

Scissors, Paper, Stone!

I am not sure how the game was first started.

But since then, there are now international variations of this game.
In Singapore, we know it as Scissors, Paper, Stone. Which is derived from our former colonial masters. The Brits call theirs Paper, Scissors, Stone. Americans call it Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Singaporeans who play the mandarin version will say Stone, Scissors, Cloth.

There is also a World RPS (Rock Paper Stone) Society with annual games played to crown the world's top RPS player.

There are some rules you might not have heard before eg.

Scissors must be played vertically. Hence it must not be facing down or up.

Paper, on the other hand (hahaha) must be played horizontally. I suppose facing up or down don't matter that much as well.

You cannot play this symbol at any point of time in the game:

If you don't know how important this game is viewed, well, it was once used to decide who to award $20 million worth of art work; Christie's or Sotheby's. Sotheby's lost. Because Christie's employed the advice of two RPS experts - the 11-year old daughters of one of the company's directors.

Tip: When in doubt - Always Scissors.

This post was inspired by this through this.

So....

Who said that we are going to increase GST to 7%?

And does he drive you wild?

Accidental Babies

Well I held you like a lover
Happy hands
Your elbow in the appropriate place

And we ignore our others
Happy plans
For that delicate look upon your face

Our bodies move and hardened
Hurting parts of your garden
With no room for a pardon
In a place where no one knows
What we have done

Do you come
Together ever with him?
Is he dark enough?
Enough to see your light?
Do you brush your teeth before you kiss?
Do you miss my smell?
And is he bold enough to take you on?
Do you feel like you belong?
And does he drive you wild?

Or just mildly free?

What about me?

Well you held me like a lover
Sweaty hands
And my foot in the appropriate place

And we use cushions to cover
Happy glands
And the mild issue of our disgrace

Our minds pressed and guarded
While our flesh disregarded
The lack of space
Feel lighthearted in the boom
That beats our drum

I know I make you cry
I know sometimes you wanna die
But do you really feel alive
Without me?
If so, be free
If not, leave him for me
Before one of us has accidental babies

For we aren't

Do you come
Together ever with him?
Is he dark enough?
Enough to see your light?
Do you brush your teeth before you kiss?
Do you miss my smell?
Is he bold enough to take you on?
Do you feel like you belong?
And does he drive you wild?
Or just mildly free?

What about me?
What about me?
What about...?

Damien Rice

Ultraviolet (Light My Way)

Oh sugar, don't you cry
Oh child, wipe the tears from your eyes
You know I need you to be strong
And the day is as dark as the night is long
Feel like trash, you make me feel clean
I'm in the black, can't see or be seen

Baby, baby, baby...light my way
(alright now)
Baby, baby, baby...light my way

Y Kant Tori Read

Got into putting Tori Amos into shuffle today.







Ooooooh oh, these little earthquakes.....

here we go again.......

Phuket Series #05: Vegetarian Festival

Images like the one above don't get out of your mind easily.



What more when it's not pins that are sticking through but pick-axes?

That's one can see at the Phuket Vegetarian Festival. This is an annual affair that starts on the first day of the ninth lunar month and continues until the ninth. The different temples will have street procession through Phuket town and the biggest procession is the one staged by the biggest Chinese Temple here called Jui Teng.

So on a hot Saturday afternoon, I was there along with thousand others to witness the procession that lasted from early morning about 8plus until early afternoon. The morning will see the devotees getting ready at the temple. I wasn't in time for the ceremonial bits but it's got to do with the devotees getting into a trance state before being pierced, possessed or something like that.



The town was out in full force. Many were preparing to let off firecrackers as the devotees or chariots carrying the deities and gods went pass.



Some would kneel down as certain chariots went pass. Probably a high ranking god or something.

The locals set up altars with offerings of wine, fruits, sweets because they also sought blessings from the procession. Some of the devotees will stop by altars set up by the locals and bless them.

Males were not the only ones involved. Females were in the procession too. But the more extreme stuff were by men.

The girl in the red cheongsam was damn chio....she's probably going to be wedded to some deity of god or something. Symbolic I think. Not legal binding. Hahaha.... Young girls formed part of the procession too.



The guy with the green umbrella pierced through his cheek...well, judging from the angle, he wasn't doing it to shade himself.



Many had swords (Japanese Samurai type) pierced through their cheeks.



Some had knives.



Poles....



Even small plants...

Barbed wires could be used for piercing as well as wrapping.

Everyday objects like what appears to be oven skewers can be used too! I wondered if the things they used for piercing reflected their occupation.....

Like clockwise from top left: dumbbells = gym instructor, lampshade = lightings salesman, warship = navy man, flowers = florist, electrical cables = electrician, badminton racquets = badminton player, skewer with apple at the end = fruits vendor, engine parts = car mechanic.

These two above sell tyre rims?

I wondered what was going through their minds when they inflicted such damage to their bodies. I'm sure it's all spiritual and stuff....but I caught one of them (I'm giving him a fictitious name, Rachat) who seemed to have second thoughs....see below:



*I do apologise about the resolution of the pictures. It speeds things up for me though.

*****************
#01: Introduction
#02: General
#03: Food
#04: Island Tour
#05: Vegetarian Festival
#06: Muay Thai
#07: Firecracker Special
#08: Afterthoughts

Pass Out 2006

This year's Pass Out Party was utterly early considering that it's a drinking party masquerading as a Christmas Party replete with gifts and merry-making.

But it's not.

But the Pass Out Party this year is so much closer to an actual Christmas Party. There was at least 50% less alcohol involved. Looking at the picture to the left really show how much less alcohol we're consuming compared to say...the second Pass Out in 2003. That was the year when a certain Mr L came to know the toilet bowl better and the carpet of the hotel room had to be cleaned because there was puke on it. The total amount of alcohol in the picture on the left is roughly equivalent to the amount each individual had in Pass Out 2003. Ok, I'm kidding. But I'm doing it without a smile.

This year's Pass Out was also unique in that we didn't actually play the Pass Out Game. But there was still Indian Poker.

*it's not kawaii-neh look....I was indicating 2 diamonds. I don't do cute.
**But if i was playing Indian Poker, how would I know it was 2 diamonds?
***Fuck.

This year's venue was also unique. First two years were in hotel rooms. Then we moved to NTU hostel. Next was the home of friend whose parents were overseas. This year it was at barbaablackchic. And we had record numbers. In all, there were like 19 of us (fullscreamriot and girlfriend, yf and sj,

jados and bry, yve and ben, ben and ken, reiki and ray, marcus,

marc, mark, leslie, poofie, v and i.

That's really a crowd!
And looking at how we came to know each other, our occupations...it's really interesting! We've got people in audit, people in banking, teachers (Physical Education type as well - soon to be), tuition teachers, engineers, DJs (international DJs leh, don't pray pray...spun in Bangkok, Shenyang! And inner Mongolia hahaha), graphic artist/designer and throw in one sailor. Steady... A lawyer was suppose to be around though...

This year's gift theme was orange and between $9-$10. This is by far the most lenient year as well, in terms of gift guidelines. There was an attempt to have a dress theme which was actually quite fun except for three people who wasn't sporting enough....yawn....these are probably the people who won't dress up for a halloween party....actually I won't either. Anyway...

Plenty of laughs....I was really tired though cause I had duty during the day.

This was the gift I picked out from the "ashtray":














Not the girl you silly ass. It's the mechanical pencil on my ear. I count myself lucky that I didn't get exciting stuff like orange panty:


Ben and Ken provided loads of laughter. Ben even did a "pole dance'..

This year's Pass Out was also for poofie whose birthday fell on some days after. And Jade too as she will be working in the land of rising sun soon... So it's a pow kow liao party.

Phuket Series #??: Sorry For The Delay

I've been very busy lately....so haven't been able to upload my pictures for the Phuket Series. The remaining enteries in the Series are the heavyweights. By that I mean lots of pictures. Lots of pictures that will probably consume my weekend. And it's Sirens weekend at Zouk. damn....

I'll post some pictures.....consider them like "trailers"....

Muay Thai (the pictures in this series will really show how lousy I am with the camera still - not able to shoot sporting events yet).....

& Vegetarian Festival (afternoon sun and lots of shadows again - poor metering) .....

Decisions, d.c.tions, de see shens.

damn....I haven't blog about Pass Out Party 2006.... and need to ask Jados for permission to use her pics again...

*****************
#01: Introduction
#02: General
#03: Food
#04: Island Tour
#05: Vegetarian Festival
#06: Muay Thai
#07: Firecracker Special
#08: Afterthoughts

New Albums!!!

I bought Damien Rice's new album - 9 and collected M.Ward's Post War from HMV (CityLinkMall) yesterday.

Let's start with M.Ward's album which I've plugged so many times here in my blog. Well, I finally got it!!!! The video for Chinese Translation is really great. Animation in chinese style. Not the Mulan varietal. Think of those long gone animation series of Sun Wu Kong that was shown during Chinese New Year where the movements of the characters are super fluid. The album is really really good. Not great but not many albums are these days anyway. M.Ward sings the songs that you'd want to hear if you're tired of the "new wave" bands, the piano-driven bands, the hiphop/r'n'b tunes. It's perfect for days when you just want to relax to some folksy, laid back songs sung by a voice that comprise one part bittersweet coffee, three parts wild honey (what the hell?) and laced with whiskey.

Then there is the excellent follow-up effort by Damien Rice. It's very "wow" - this second album. The first listen and it's an immediate liking for almost every song. And when you're confident enough to not put your face on your second album (ditto for first album), you're almost there. And the first voice you hear doesn't belong to him as well (it's his long time duet partner Lisa Hannigan). But the piano intro has got "Damien Rice" written all over. If you thought his previous album "O" was confessional, "9" is cathartic. Sometimes it gets a little too uncomfortable to hear. Because the songs sometime sounds like the words from a close friend who is down and out in love and life, pouring his heart out in a drunken stupor. Except there is no alcohol in this to dilute the awkwardness. The brilliant "Accidental Babies", the penultimate song in this album about a love triangle that has this line that goes "Is he dark enough? Enough to see your light?" which just does it for me. Makes it an even more appropriate song compared to "The Blower's Daughter" for the the movie Closer.

Oh yeah. I bought my first Chinese CD too! Not Rainie Yang. But Stephanie Sun Yanzi! Hahaha....

Girls Out Loud

In case you missed this:



new show in town...

the Crazy Horse segment had Rozz telling us she's balancing on her cheebye. Hahahahahahaha!

Phuket Series #02: General

This is mainly about the odd bits which I don't really know where to blog them under. So ended up bundling the departure bits, hotel bits, bohliao bits, sights that I thought might be interesting bits, so on so forth. This is not going to be coherent. I try my best to be chronological but may not be so...

Those who've been so privilege and not departed from or arrived at or seen the Budget Terminal of Singapore, well, here it is.

Only two airlines operate from the terminal: Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific.

I stayed in Salathai Resort in Phuket. There's the Royal Phawadee Village on the opposite road which I think I will try the next time I am in Phuket. The location wasn't exactly sea front but it's about 2 minutes from the beach. It's a 10 minute walk from Bangla Road which is really great cause that means the rowdy crowd is more than earshot away. Makes for peaceful sleep at night.

The rooms are pretty good-sized. I had a twin share room which overlooks the pool. It's only 3-storeys high so only stairs. No lifts.

Not too messy my room...I think. Was living out of the luggage most of the time although I could easily hang my clothes but was too lazy. And it's Phuket! I only brought t-shirts and polo Ts, no need to be neat lah...

The balcony overlooks the pool...

I had a lot of time in Phuket which was fantastic. Until boredom sets in. Which is still alright by me. Beats working by far. I spent alot of time with Discovery, VH1, Star Movie and other cable channels. I also caught the Miss International Queen on the local Thai channel. Miss Mexico won by the way. I was rooting for Miss Thailand though. I spent alot of time taking pictures and just walking up and down the beach. Not spending much time on the beach itself though. Those who are familiar will know that the beach chairs are available for a small fee. Well, I never did use it once. Not at all. In fact, I think I touched sea water like twice. And never went in beyond knee deep. Wasted I guess. I took some pictures of Patong Beach and odd stuff I had seen like birds roosting on cables.

I didn't immediately recognise them at first. I thought how come this set of cables had ridges on them. I was staring at them for sometime and finally make out the shapes. There was a hawker who saw me looking at the birds. He was smiling at me and saying they were birds. I nodded in agreement. Then he asked me if I wanted chicken wings.

Close up of the birds. Swallows I think. More here.
I didn't bring along my tripod and I definitely don't have a pair of steady hands. Flash wasn't powerfuly enough...so in the end, the pictures turned out pretty crummy.

I walked along the road parallel to the beach and took photos of the scene. There was this group of men who were trudging some mudflats. Probably looking for mollusks.

Views of Patong.



Look carefully at the picture below and spot the guys looking for mollusks.

I spent about 3 of the days in Phuket town. When the Vegetarian Festival was in full swing. Caught the procession and also other sights. It was difficult to get really great pictures because it was high noon. Actually, it just mean that I'm still lousy at photo-taking. Nevermind, just need more practise.

The King (or his picture to be precise) made an appearance too. Paraded throughout Phuket. marking his 60th anniversary on the throne I think.



And this guy was riding his "homemade" chopper. Not exactly O.C.C (Orange County Choppers) but it did invite envious looks from the policeman standing by the road.



The parade with the marching band...



Lots of firecrackers! I've never seen so much of them in my life.

There was street art in Phuket but not very wooster worthy. This 20 metre piece was one of the best I've seen. Not just because of the size lah, because it was more than random sprays or tags.

There were some pictures I took cause I thought they might be funny. But didn't turn out so. One of them was this of the Kumon signboard that was looking over the Phuket procession.

It rained on 5 of the 7 days I was there. It's always around the same time. 4-5pm local time. And on the final two nights, it rained between 4-5pm, stopped briefly and continued from 6 plus until 9pm. That meant no chance of taking beautiful sunsets. All I got was this series of clouds I took from my balcony.

But despite the weather, there were many opportunities to take pictures. I got to know my new camera better. Hopefully I can find another chance to go on a photo trip again. Find more Kodak moments. Like this one:




*****************
#01: Introduction
#02: General
#03: Food
#04: Island Tour
#05: Vegetarian Festival
#06: Muay Thai
#07: Firecracker Special
#08: Afterthoughts