unhappy blog-reader, akaroa visit, straight flatties and gay life

Recently, I havent been up to shagging a Thai boy, exploring moneyboys in Silom or spending a relaxing time in the steamy sauna with my bf and the technician of my condo.

Loyal reader "anonymous" deeply resents this and gave me a scathing assessment of my blog.

"I hope your life is far less boring that your posts, which have gone from unoffensive mildly amusing posts from a white queenie white student in Bangkok to derisible silly opinionated rants about your boring life in New Zealand."

Thank you for your accurate assessment. The exit is to your right my love.

Seriously, why are you even reading my blog? It has been around for more than a year and you had about 365 days to get lost already, so why didnt you a bit earlier?

Apart from that, and on a more serious note. My life is not boring and I am making something out of it. How could you possibly judge on someone's whole life on the basis of such a silly blog?

Seriously, this topic creeps up time and again. Especially with bkkdreamer's and my blog. Stop judging about the people's lives on the basis of mere texts...we bloggers have a life besides blogging too...

Actually, I need to tell you that I am not in NZ for good...in a few weeks, I shall be back to Bangkok. In the meantime, bear with me and broaden your horizons a bit:)

Two days ago, my friend gave me his Toyota Celica for two days. It was only yesterday that I could fully benefit from having a car.

In the afternoon, I packed my bags and drove off to Akaroa. This little town is on the Banks Peninsula, about 1.5 hours away from Christchurch. The drive is very scenic as I passed farms, an estuary, orchards, hills, the coastline and even had to climb and descend a rather high hill.



Arrived on the hill, the panorama is gorgeous. I also chose a gorgeous day. Winter, I reckon is the best time to visit Christchurch - IF the weather is ok. The colours were colder but more interesting than in summer, when the landscape is all but green or brown.

Of course, my camera decided to throw a tantrum and did not work. The battery was empty...

I arrived in Akaroa just when the sun was about to set. Or so I thought...winter sunsets in New Zealand are gorgeous and last forever!

On the way back, one of the most magic sights of my whole life suddenly appeared around the corner: Behind the whole chain of the Southern Alps, from the right to the left, the sky was illuminated in an incredibly intense red.

The estuary in front of me reflected this spectacle so that every car passing this sight stopped and marvelled at its beauty....truly gorgeous. I just wish I had my proper camera with me...



On to another topic...straight male flat-mates. This is one of the worst situations you can live in. I warn you and I am speaking with confidence here, since hardly anyone of you is a straight male anyway.

Today, the two Chinese blokes left. Now it's just me and a (straight) Dutch man. The kitchen was nothing short of disgusting. Half the dishes were soaked in a puddle of grease, water, rice and shrimp remainings.

Action had to be taken. I deserve a medal of honour and have to re-iterate that I never ever lived with a straight guy who did dishes and kept the house clean. Poor, poor women of our earth...

After two weeks of silence, my gaydar is slowly picking up signals. Today, I went to my favourite Korean restaurant and apparently the owner, or just the personally had changed.

Instead of a moody teenage girl, a smiling young man welcomed me and my friends. I watched him as he proceeded to talk to girls. But there was something odd with him, he also talked and smiled to guys, in a very sweet way.

When we left, he asked us, which one of us was the Korean person. None of us, we replied...The man tried to make conversation, and sent me off with a big sweet smile - I think he's PLU :)

Just before, when I put out the disgusting rubbish of the two straight ex-flatmates, two men approached. When they saw me, with all my boxer-shorts glory (in below zero temperatures nonetheless), they eyed me, and stopped talking.

Also gay? Or just aghast at my non-matching combination of orange-red boxers with a blue-grey shirt? :)

Sunday in New Zealand

A Sunday in New Zealand. How does that sound? Well, I find that strangely, for many people, it's a day of routines.

This is of course not only a New Zealand observation... When I still lived with my parents (more than 7 years ago), we used to have a big breakfast, which was more like a brunch.

Meat, bread, orange juice, jam, cheese and two sunday newspapers. While my mum and dad preferred the one that's read by the masses, I preferred the more upmarket newspaper.

It had just the right mix of political news, serious business matters, a good fashion and lifestyle section, a bit of sports and a nice travel articles. It was the newspaper for the "discerning reader"...:)

In New Zealand, my Sunday used to start quite similarly...miles and miles away from my family, I did much the same, with the boyfriend as an ersatz-family.

For nearly a year, I had to drive him to work on Sundays towards lunch time. I dropped him off at the mall (see, everything revolves around these bloody things) and went about my own business.

I had two phases. One was the active outdoors phase. In summer, when the temperatures are solidly hovering around 15C during the day, sometimes going as high as 30, sometimes as low as 10 degrees, I picked up my bike, put it into the boot of my car and drove out to the countryside.

I had a love-hate relationship with my car at the time. A green Saab 900 made in 1994, it was a beautfiul, elegant, edgy and sublimely comfortable. But, it was not very reliable. I spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on new parts until I got scared that it might one day simple die on me. I sold it.

When I didnt drive out to the countryside, I 'd head straight to the supermarket and, since I was hungry, bought tons of cheese, bread, spreads, olives and so on.

And...the Sunday newspaper. Here in New Zealand, it's called the "Sunday Star Times", and isnt exactly what you'd call "quality journalism". Still, it was entertaining, and came with a little magazine called "sunday".

On a sunny sunday, I'd lie down on the bed in my sun-drenched room, eat my breads, spreads and olives and read "sunday".

Fast forward two years.

Today, I got up early. Well, I heard an sms and jumped up. I realised quickly that I'd slept through my 8.30am date with my friend to take him to the airport.

I put on any clothes I could see (no matchy-matchy, kawadjan;), looked into the mirror (I actually looked rather ok) and ran out. I did not even put on my anti-wrinkle cream though...

My friend, who is from Peru and has a Jewish-Polish mum, who lived in Spain, was flying up to Auckland for two days.

He asked me to take care of his car for the time and I was thrilled at his suggestion. You see, in Christchurch, living without a car is like living in a wheelchair.

You can do most things, but it's horribly inconvenient to get around.

In the back of the car was his "friend". (I think his fuckbuddy or semi-gf or something though) She didnt speak English, so I had to resort to other languages.

A few minutes later, I was driving a car...I hadnt done that in months!

A cute little Toyota Celica. I remember how rougly 18 years ago, mum, dad and me (I was a cute little boy with long, straight blond hair and big cheeks!) drove to Italy for our first holiday - in a red Toyota Celica!


The super-celica. Isnt that a beauty? Ours was red though...

I headed to the supermarket and bought - the sunday newspaper!


Today's Sunday Star Times

What did I find in there? The usual boring silly bits, and as a compensation a few funny and scarily opinionated editorials.

One guy who keeps writing for the newspaper is a middle-aged ex-Member of Parliament cum Mayor of a smalltown cum radio broadcaster cum writer. (for the interested, google "michael laws")

He's notoriously big-mouthed and always writes about sex. I dont know why a politician can seriously write a half-a-page about sex every sunday. This weekend, he said that women prefer "old gentlemen" to "mummy's boys".

He is neither, so I dont know where he fits. Up to you...

Another column was more interesting. The woman wrote about the New Zealand Prime Minister, who is notoriously (a bit too) chummy with important people.

Apparently, he said to the Tongan King that his english is probably much better than his own. From a reliable source, I also know that the Prime Minister, upon being asked a question while having dinner with the King of Spain started his reply with: "Well, King, .....".

Hahahaha, that has to be too much.


NZ Prime Minister John Key.

There was also gay content in the newspaper. By the way: I am sorry I cant report on any gay things here, such as flirts, observations, good-looking men etc...such things are extremely rare here...

A columnist wrote in all seriosity that women's sports should not be taken seriously, is only for lesbians and is just watched by men because they are horny creatures.

Well, I have never had these feelings, but I still think it's a handful to write such things in a mainstream newspaper...

Readers might be more interested in the rugby-section though. Next weekend, the All Blacks are playing the Wallabies of Australia. Everyone is gearing up.

The capitain of the All Blacks, Richie McCaw, himself quite a handsome man, has returned from an injury. Here, you can see him celebrate a victory with his friends.


Richie McCaw in the middle

I hope many Thais read this, and will never ever call me "fat anymore". Compared to the fella on the left, I loook as slim as a gazelle on a diet!

And now, before I go back to reading "sunday" magazine, look at the advertisement below. I think it's funny.

Mall Culture, a Hungarian Onion, a Heater and a Wine

We have two winners. International Mister Gay 2009 is MISTEEEEEEER Switzerland.

How strange...I thought the Swiss are about as known for producing interesting, funky and hot people as the Thais for producing a good wine...

The second winner is Sepiroth. It was long overdue that some smart brain found out where I am. Of course, Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud, or New Zealand, as most of you will call the country.

Mister Sepiroth was not quite right though...I am not a Kiwi. But I AM in New Zealand. Christchurch if you want it more accurately. You can check all the farangs in Christchurch now and see whether they look like a bitchofbangkok.


The moon...beautiful, isnt it?

I think I owe you a little bit of an explanation over my mall/suburbia-rant from a few days ago. Even though I sometimes rant, and people get offended, I do have my reasons for voicing an opinion.

Let me keep it short though. Most people will say: Let the people do whatever they want to. If someone decides to have 2 Hummers, 3 Ferraris and 2 Benz SUV's, a dog, a child and a house in suburbia, let them do.

Well, of course we are a relatively free society. But, I still can not quite support that argument. I believe in the regulatory power of the state. Americans would call this "liberal", Europeans maybe "etatist".

I think the Government is there to guide us. We do not care enough for our environment and live in an extremely inefficient society. We live hours away from work and every person drives to work in their own car. Cares produce way too many emissons and so on...


One more time, la luna

Also, when I walk around in Christchurch, everyone has a house and a garden around it, and a huge fence around the garden. How many times do I see people use the garden and enjoy it though?

Rarely. Having to "keep up" the garden is the only activity that normally takes place there. I had a friend who studied here. Her house was home to a grand total of 4 people and 5 cars...

Then the malls. Malls, at least the way they are designed here, contribute to extreme uniformity and encourage people to be less and less creative. You go to the mall, get your groceries (ok, not everyone can go to the market), get some clothes (from some boring brand), have a coffee from Starbucks...

At least café-culture is well and alive in New Zealand, especially in Wellington. Here, believe it or not, I have had the best coffees outside of Italy.

Good morning Christchurch

At my university, I had to change room. I moved from being neighbours with a Hungarian Christian fundamentalist to being neighbours with a gay-hating French Arab.

The Hungarian man is nothing short of crazy. He discussed gay marriage with me recently and of course, at some point the argument will be: "the bible says this". Then, you are disarmed because this is the ultimate argument. After this, the discussion is finished.

He recently got divorced from his wife and according to him, its the fault of the New Zealand Government. They gave her a house, he complains. I rather think she desperately wanted to leave him, and got support from the NZ Government. Well done!

Now, he ordered a new bride from the Philippines. He proudly chats to her about 4 hours a day and calls her frequently. Her pictures hang next to his ex-wife's at his work-station.

According to the Hungarian, Filipinos are good and civilised people, because "they are Christians, they wear shoes and dont eat with their hands".

My friend found porn of her on his memory stick when he was helping to print out a document. Maybe the Hungarian is just a horny middle-aged man and not as saintly as he thinks he is.

The Hungarian likes to eat raw onions, because it prevents him from getting Swine flu. I thought I was back in Thailand when I heard this...

After his onion feast, the Hungarian in his entirety, the whole room and according to my best friend, even the lift smells like onions. Goodbye, I said and moved next to the French Arab gay-hater girl. Lets see how we get along...

She was shouting at her mum in a mix of Arab and French on the phone for nearly 30 minutes today...a good start..


Dew! I remember that Thais travelled to the North in winter to see dew. Come to Christchurch I say:)

The office is ultra-happy to have me around. Bitching and gossiping is on an all-time high. If there are a few people huddled together in a corner, talking about someone else, I will be part of that group for sure!

My friend calls us the office-bullies.

A friend who has met me through this blog has said that I sound extremely feminine and bitchy. Well, it's my name. In real life though I am a manly bear...hahahaha, kidding. I am not a queeny boy though. And I am certainly not quite as evil as you might think.

But, if someone is rude to me, I will try to be at least double as rude back to them:P

Tonight, I am having a wonderful night. I am drinking a Pinot Noir from Central Otago (for people who dont know wine: "a very good red wine"). It's from an area called "Mount Difficulty". That makes me wonder how the mountain got its name...

I also bought a little fan heater. OMG, I nearly died last night. It was below zero and my hairdryer died. To me, my hairdryer is about as crucial as the umbrella to my bf. We can not live without them!!!

International Mister Gay 2009

We fags love looking great, so it is no surprise that we have a beauty pageant too. This one is called "INTERNATIONAL MISTER GAY 2009". I suppose to have a chance to be chosen you need to be gay, and that's about it.

I have chosen some representatitives of countries. Frankly, I am a bit disappointed. Especially the quality of the pictures...

You choose...which one do you like?

I will tell you the real winner tomorrow.

Here are the contestants:


Mister Gay Australia. Quite a body, eh!


Mister Gay Brazil. Qute!:) Looks like my first bf with his curly hair!


Mister Costa Rica....Ay bonito! He looks good I think.


Mister France. Looks like he is 16. Kinda qute but, the picture.........oh my.


Mister Guam. Does anyone but the Americans and Pinoys among us know where this "country" is situated? Look at his face and you know. Between Asia and the Americas:)


Mister Korea. What a body. yummy! but a face made out of candyfloss...



Where do you think this man is from? Netherlands? Belgium? Great Britain? No.....he is Mr Gay MOZAMBIQUE!

This young many looks interesting...some kind of mix. No wonder, he is Mr Gay NAMIBIA.

Mr Gay Peru. Sorry but I can take a better picture of myself right now, if you wish, unshaved and -showered even.

Mister Philippines. He looks Thai to me. He will probably be your favourite. Qute but same same many other guys, no?

MIster Scotland is not wearing a kilt...he has a hot body nevertheless...

Mister Switzerland. Where are the cow bells? Anyway, the star tattoo is hot! And so are his undies, and his butt too:)

Mister Syria......he looks a bit evil...

And this is our own representative, Mister Gay Thailand....no comment. We all know there are hordes of better-looking people on the streets of Siam...

My favourites are Costa Rica, Switzerland and Namibia...

miserable farangland

Farangland is still the same. It's cold and cloudy and I have a 10am-8pm day at university, followed by some quiet moments in my dorm-room.

Over the weekend, I went to town. It was a Saturday afternoon, not that cold and not rainy - quite nice! The town where I stay is actually a really beautiful city, not very big, but not small either.

There is plenty to see in the town centre, yet there was no one there...I walked around, past the cafés, the clothes boutiques, the souvenir shops, the book shops and it was all empty.

For a moment, I was wondering whether there is a public holiday, but those dont really exist in farangland here..

From my 3-years experience of living here, I remember countless shops who have come and gone in the main shopping street of the city, some are even empty - that can not be a good sign. And this is not due to the recession, because even when farangland's economy was doing well, some of these shops were empty.

Then, I realised something. Half of the people out in the street were Chinese. Another few Korean or other Asians. The white faranglanders were missing. Where were they?


Typical farangland butchery

I spotted a trailer in the middle of the main shopping street. The man sold donuts and coffee. He was a typical faranglander.

A rough man, a bit of a beard, rugged face, a jacket, some worn-out jeans and a big smile on his face. He asked me and my friend how our day was.

We told him: We are just having a day out. Then I asked him: Why is it so quiet. He said: If it would have been sunny for 30 more minutes, the people would have come out to town, now they went to the mall (it was overcast, but not rainy at all).

The f*cking mall. I hate them. Everyone goes to malls in farangland. It's that dirty American suburban culture mixed with the traditional "rite of passage" for every faranglander to own his little wee house with a tiny garden, the so-called "quarter-acre dream".


A Faranglander's dream, he/she will work for this life for decades.

How long does it take until people realise that this dream is fake and over. My town here is rather small but it has traffic jams, and rush-hours because EVERYONE takes the car to work.

The malls here are miserable! They teem with bored people. Families, old people, young people, teens, schoolkids. People are bored and cold - lets go to the mall. The mall numbs people's minds - they dont have the creativity to do anything else anymore.

When I used to live in farangtown with my boyfriend, we had a miserable life too. We both like to be among people. Faranglanders however commute between their TV, their car, the mall and work, that's it. So we used to go to the mall too just because we could not stand the quietness of the house or the neighbourhood.


My University on a sunny day

Farangtown is a tough city. It really tests your sturdiness. If you dont have friends, a boyfriend, a car and either creativity and energy, or indifference, you will become depressed.

Right now, I am fine. I have a boring and monotonous and immobile life. I do the same every day but it's ok, because I have a job to do. My happiness is measured in the numbers of words I write every day. If it's more than 500, my mood is good, if more than 1000, my mood is happy.

I want everyone who lives in Bangkok, Thailand, or elsewhere in Asia, and is not happy with their lives to think and reflect on their life.

Dont you like stepping out of your condo, and the next taxi comes right there?
Dont you love having a midnight snack with your friends on the roadside, BBQ chicken, somtam, etc?
Dont you love being able to walk down to 7eleven at 2am when you realise that you want some Orange Juice, MaMa Noodles, or a lollie?
Dont you love that you dont need to think about what combination of clothes you are going to wear because a shirt and pants will do? (ok that one does not hold up for kawadjan and me:))
Dont you love having people around you whenever you step out of your condo?


It's better here after all, isnt it?

Maybe you dont realise all these things, but when they are gone, you realise how you have gotten very used to all these niceties.


p.s. the farangland pictures were taken last year. this year there wasnt any light yet to take the pictures. someone turn the light on please?

a saying from farangland goes: may the last one to leave farangland please turn the light off.

I think they all left....?!?!?

facebook bitching

I am sure ALLLLLLLLLLLLL of you are on facebook.

Ever discovered when you add someone, you already have like 5 common friends? Or that when you are curious, and you click on someone who has made comments to your friends' pictures, and then you see that you have like 10 common friends?

I am not talking about close-knit circles of friends here. I am talking about the rice-queen/potato-queen society. I am not kidding you but there seems to be something like that emerging on facebook...

I can seriously not believe this. I had a Thai friend (really, just friend) who told me about this Swiss guy that he was totally in love with and that they had such an awesome time together... (I better not write more, because the people might even read this!!!)

Thai friend told me: look at this profile, mister Hans Meier (name changed). I looked at the Swiss guy's profile and promptly, he's a friend of a Malaysian friend too, avidly commenting on both guy's oh-so-cute and oh-so-hot new pictures.

Today, I added someone else on my friends list (hey, I only have like 140 friends, mostly not even gay), and he had someone on his friends list that I heard of. I clicked that heard-of expat's profile.

Boom, 4 common friends. One of them lives in London, one of them in KL and two of them in Bangkok (that dont know each other at all).

What's going on here? I am starting to think something...the circle of Westerners, often (s)expats, and I am talking about under 40-year olds now, who do this "online-thing", is only so big...

And on the other side, the circle of Asian gays who like Westerners exclusively, or partly, and network with them online, is only so big...

Smallish community, and smallish community, heaps of networking, THAT is the result: A tiny community of a few thousand people...

I think that for many people, facebook is like a gayromeo.com with bigger profiles and more information. There are these Western guys on facebook who have like 3400 friends, ALLLLLLL Asian boys. For them, facebook is apparently a tool to get to know (and fuck?) Asian boys...one "cuter" than the other. good on you I say, but it gets odd if we share like 10 similar "friends".

Who am I to judge them though? Well, I have built up a circle of online-friends from all over the world (mostly in Asia though) who are actually friends. Not the really close ones but still, friends.

And then to see that there's something like a copy of you out there who either has done the same and is flirting a couple of them, is just so strange. It feels like a disarmament of my achievements, like I am having countless stalkers.

I am mostly using facebook as a tool to really connect with my friends, who are all around the world, because I have lived with them, they are part of my family, studied with them, partied with them or in a few cases, chatted with them.

Many layers of friends go into facebook, it's like a projection of my life. I have some friends in farangland who said they quitted it because they spent too much time on it, I couldnt!

Just one thing, I want to warn you all. It is SO EASY to find information about you on facebook, who you hang out with, what you think, where you live, your phone number, your blog, your email, your preferences, your flirts etc

My advice is: do not put too much of your info out there, you may regret it when someone finds out:)

Pictures from farangland

I went out and got my fingers frozen while taking some pictures with my newly acquired tripod.

The weather here in farangland can be amazing, with low clouds passing at high speed. That gave some pictures a nice effect of a "moving sky".

While I took those pictures, a security car from the university passed me at very slow speed...it must be indeed odd to spot a guy with a tripod and a big camera at 9pm on the street.

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