Q1 '06

The first quarter of the year has come to a close and here are the highlights of Q1.





Laura, you are dearly missed by all of us here.

The previous post meant nothing. CK burnt me that song on a CD and I was in love with it. I first heard it used on a trailer for CSI and have always wanted to get it. I wanted to post it, but it seemed taboo to put it together with pics of CK and myself, so I found some old pics to put it up with instead. The pics are also for the benefit of letting CK know the extent of fatness I can get. The song is Your Ex-Lover is Dead by Star, in case you wanna go look for it. Cheers.

when there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire

God that was strange to see you again
Introduced by a friend of a friend
Smiled and said 'yes I think we've met before'
In that instant it started to pour,
Captured a taxi despite all the rain
We drove in silence across point champlain
And all of the time you thought I was sad
I was trying to remember your name…

This scar is a fleck on my porcelain skin
Tried to reach deep but you couldn't get in
Now you're outside me
You see all the beauty
Repent all your sin

It's nothing but time and a face that you lose
I chose to feel it and you couldn't choose
I'll write you a postcard
I'll send you the news
From a house down the road from real love…

Live through this, and you won't look back…
Live through this, and you won't look back…
Live through this, and you won't look back…

There's one thing I want to say, so I'll be brave
You were what I wanted
I gave what I gave
I'm not sorry I met you
I'm not sorry it's over
I'm not sorry there's nothing to say

I'm not sorry there's nothing to say...

These pics are slightly dated, but what the heck.

Lene, two other mates and I.


Lene and I, we did not pose for the pics. We were just chilling and talking at this bbq, and we didn't know that these pics were taken.


I think this pic is beautiful.

CK was right! We're alone here! Eeps!

2/24/06 - 2/25/06 Day 5 & Day 6 - Bangkok

Day 5, CK and I left Pattaya on a bus for Bangkok on Day 5. We reached Bangkok in the early evening and we went shopping and to grab some dinner. We didn't buy much, only a pair of matching navy skinny ties, which we wore to the Herstory party. We went to watch Brokeback Mountain, since she is underaged to watch it in Singapore.

Day 6, CK and I caught the train to the Chatuchak weekend market.


Hmm, you do not have to give up your seat for the elderly or disabled, but you have to let the monks have it.


Me eating char siew rice looking thingy at Chatuchak. The pet section at Chatuchak was my fave. There were the usual cats and dogs, the not so usual squirrals, lizards and snakes, and then there was the really rare slow lorises. I was so tempted to get a slow loris. It's so cute, and I have already decided it'd be called stinky, but CK wouldn't let me. We left soon after lunch as it was starting to get crowded and I was starting to feel claustrophobic. We only bought a couple of t-shirts.

Random photograph.

And Bangkok nightlife.

Update

Have decided to change the title from Bigot's Travels to Bigot's Photo Journal. Reason being that LJ sucks. I can't believe they don't allow direct upload from file. Maybe I should subscribe to a LJ paid account, but dunno how much that'll be. Anyway, have decided that since that's the case, all photo stuff will be posted here in Blogger, while entries will still go to LJ. CK commented the other day that we seem to be the only people here. I guess the reason being that nobody seems to comment. So if you happen to be reading this, please drop a comment, a hello would do, just so that we know there are other life forms here. Will be posting the last installment for the Cambodian/Thailand trip and then will move on to the other stuff soon.

2/22/06 - 2/23/06 Day 4 & Day 5 - Pattaya

Day 4, we are supposed to do our border crossing from Cambodia into Thailand today. How exciting. CK and I woke up early to catch our ride -- we are to share a cab -- to the border crossing point, Poipet. The bumpy cab ride to the Poipet from Battambang took about two hours. The border crossing was uneventful and quite a letdown. I expected more excitment and something more challenging. After we got our passports stamped by both sides, we found ourselves in Aranyaprathet, Thailand. We took a tuktuk ride to the bus station in the town centre, where we hopped onto a bus to Bangkok. The bus ride was really long, I think it took about four hours just to get to Bangkok and we were really bummed out by the time we got there. We took a toilet break, had lunch and proceed on the second bus ride to Pattaya. The bus ride to Pattaya took about two hours and we were so tired. We spent a good half day travelling and after all that, all we wanted to do was to have dinner and crash. But we went out exploring nonetheless. We walked around the night markets and went to a go-go show. CK thinks that the girls in Bangkok are much better.

Day 5, we were really tired from all that travelling and lazed around in bed for a good part of the morning. When we finally got out of bed, we decided to go check out the beach and get ourselves a tan.
Pattaya in the day. To be honest, I don't really like the place, the beach is really crap. It mainly exists as a place for lonely, dirty, old, white male to go to find "love" with Thai women.

I got really bored with the beach and decided to rent a scooter to ride around and explore Pattaya instead. A full day's rental only costs 200baht, and a full tank of gas only 70baht. A license is not required and the automatic scooters are really easy to handle.

Dinner, and after dinner snacks. CK refuses to touch the maggots, so I get to have them.



After dinner, we're out checking out more of night time Pattaya. The busy streets, local eats and sexual treats.


We didn't know that we were not allowed to park the scooter along the street after dark. It got chained and we had to walk for 15 minutes to the police station to pay a fine before they would unlock the bike. We had to pay a 200baht fine and I decided to get the most out of it by getting the police to allow us to take a photo. So here's CK standing behind the counter with the Thai police, holding the summon. The table of fines can be seen behind her. She must be the happiest person to be fined. Teehee. Yes, the dude is looking most sheepish, because he was the guy who chained my bike. Bah.


And finally, here's me on the scooter, after we finally got it back. We decided to call it a day and head back for an early night's rest after that.

2/21/06 Day 3: Siem Reap to Battambang via the Tonle Sap

We got up bright and early to embark on our journey. We started with a great deal of anticipation, thinking that we're about to go on a scenic boat ride that is going to be the highlight of our trip. The bus ride to the Tonle Sap seems interesting enough and the floating village is charming to behold. The first four hour of the journey was done on a decent sized boat, rather comfortable other than the fact that we were sitting near the engine and was going deaf.





Cambodian lady rowing a boat full of vegetables. We also saw little children in school uniforms rowing to school, floating school, chickens in floating coops and even pigs in floating stys.

Contraptions used for fishing. Quite a number of these were spotted during the boat ride.

CK reading her Lonely Planet on the boat ride. She lost her first copy of Lonely Planet, but we managed to get another copy for only USD4, which I reckon is a mighty fine bargain.

The second half of the boat ride, about five and a half hours, was done on a much smaller boat. We had to switch boats as the river wasn't deep enough for the larger boats to go through during the dry seasons.

The conclusion is that, going up the Tonle Sap during the dry season is as masochistic as anyone could get. A nine and a half hour boat ride seems so much longer when you're packed like sardines, it is hot as hell and your bladder is full. We made it to Battambang in the late noon and immediately proceed to find a place to crash for the night and to empty our bladders. After which, we went out for food and drinks, and make arrangements for our ride the next day to Poipet, where we'll cross the border into Thailand.