one night, two lives

I have had it with the moneyboy topic for the moment... I think it's not my USP (unique selling point, anyone studied business too?)lets move back to my life, that's more interesting...


celebrating the beauty of pinoys again.

Today was an eventful day for me. Actually I am just really exhausted and for some reason understood no Thai whatsoever today. Like it escaped me. Writing a thesis requires a really strong character, I reckon.

You have no satisfaction whatsoever for a few months until you finish that thing. I finished 2 out of 3 chapters and have written 25,000 words in a bit more than two months.

After this thesis, another one for my Thai degree...why am I doing this, I am asking myself every day...I guess I'll never find out:)


Now everyone listen: this is the best-looking guy I ever featured on my blog. He studies at UP...if anyone knows him...tell him I love him long time.

Tonight I realised how layered my identity and behaviours have become. That sounds dramatic, I know.

Among farangs living here in Thailand, there are a few different expat groups such as the young professionals, the nana/silom/surawong/asoke love-birds, the old professionals, the backpackers etc...and then there are the ones that dont interact with other farangs.

I am one of them. Whether that's good or bad, I dont know. I know exactly one farang in Thailand, blogger bkkdreamer. Since tonight, I know two.

I met a loyal reader from a mountainous country in Europe today in the Sukhumvit area. I have never really been to Sukhumvit but it looks interesting. We even managed to walk through Soi Cowboy!!

Anyway, my new friend from mountainous farangland has a huge circle of farang friends here, and they all seem smart, achievers, educated, interesting...in short, I am jealous!

We talked about his home country, Thailand and many other places and it seemed to me that we see things very much the same way...I had suddenly become really "farang"...and I felt confused but also quite free doing that.

No need for considerations, no need to dumb down my English, no need to talk to gossip, just talk. How relieving!

I cannot do this with most Thais, it's impossible...the conversations operate on a different level, the way we think is really totally different.


*melt* yes you dont have to look into my eyes so deeply...you have disarmed me already:)

I want to elaborate more on this sometime. For now I give you a small example.

We have virus problems at university (computer, not swine flu:). The secretary girl had her anti-virus problem running when I arrived this morning. There were many red things coming up saying she has viruses.

She asked me: What should I do? I said, let the programme delete these files for you. She said: "uiiiiiiiii, na glua!!!" ohhhhh, scare. How can I close this window, I am scared of all the red...

Think what you want...


can we study together?:)

After my meeting in Sukhumvit playing the good ole farang bb, I went to badminton.

This time, none of my friends came. We were about 10 men and women between 22 and nearly 60, all Thais, except me. None of these people speak any English.

I assumed the role of the Thai bb. We had fun, we talked about bananas, about work, about study, about badminton and of course, about men. A girl asked me which one of the men I like.

I would not be surprised if the one I chose knows it already by now...



I think I should be proud of myself!

I can really integrate well with many different people I think! I am also happy I am starting to branch out to foreigners now. There's only so much chit-chat and gossip you can do...:)

Badminton update, stressed BB and Australian jokes

Since there was no badminton on Thursday and Saturday, I went today. Sadly, the guy I like didnt come today. I miss him:)

He's very cheerful and has the "taking care" mentality. When he called me, he asked if I eat a lot in the evening. I should eat less in the evening, he suggested, because it's not healthy.

This time though, my friend brought another farang friend from France. And I was positively surprised. He was a decent and nice guy! If you read this, Mister Lyon, you're a nice guy, I hope you come again!!!



On the way back from badminton, I had a cute taxi driver. Chinese eyes and the typical mullet-style Thai hair. I think he was straight though, as he said nothing more than "krub". He wore a proper white shirt and swimming shorts like the guy above in the picture. WEIRD!!!

I lost all my credit though (if I ever had any) when I tried to pay 54 baht with a 500-baht note. I said "kot tot" like 10 times but he didnt react.

This is my advice for you guys: if you take a taxi in Bangkok at night, you may find cute boys driving, but do not pay them with 500 baht, they are not bar-boys:p


Cute butt!!!

I am quite stressed! On saturday, I am going to Guangzhou with my bf. It's his birthday on Saturday and this trip is my gift for him.

I gave him the choice: check Air Asia and tell me what you like. We pinned it down to Hanoi versus Guangzhou. Guangzhou won.

I have never been to China before so I cant wait to see China. Real urban China. We will also go to Hong Kong for a day, since the bf wants to see Victoria Harbour etc.


I really like this guy!!!

Just after we come back next week, I will fly to New Zealand to work with my old professor for more than 6 weeks....bitchofbangkok will become kiwibitch. Lets see if I can report anything else but that it's beautiful, quiet and cold:)



YES, that's a sexy pose!!!

I got an email from my former flatmate. We shared a home in New Zealand in 2004 and discovered that we grew up only 40 minutes away from each other, in different faranglands though!

The email listed silly questions asked on the Australian Tourism Website and the (supposedly) real answers from the staff. I am not sure they are real, we all know that Aussies like to have a bit of a yarn, yeah?

For all non-Australians, a yarn is in essence a true story which is totally blown up for the sake of impressing others and just having a bit of fun. Best enjoyed having a barbie and drinking a (few) Cascade beer(s). Am I right?

Here we go, a few examples:

Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia ? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? ( UK ).
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.

Q: Which direction is North in Australia ? ( USA )
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia ? ( UK )
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? ( Germany )
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers.Milk is illegal.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia ? ( France )
A: Only at Christmas.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? ( INDIA )
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first.

Q: I was in Australia in 1969 on R+R, and I want to contact the Girl I dated while I was staying in Kings Cross*. Can you help? ( USA )
A: Yes, and you will still have to pay her by the hour..

And then finally, the best:

Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is smaller than the male population? ( Italy )
A: Yes, gay night clubs.

I hope you had a good laugh!


Picture 3 and 4 are taken from http://www.irkphotography.com/gallery-one/terrence-kuala-lumpur/ the pictures remain property of the owner.

i HEART bkk - for its fruits

In Farangland, mums always have to tell their boys and girls that they should eat a lot of fruit. Where I grew up, fruit is something like a swear word.

You are somehow banished to eat fruit. No chocolate, no biscuits, you have to eat fruits. And if you just feel like opening up that bag of chips/crisps, mum will be there and say: you should rather eat an apple.

Apples must be every farangland kids' nemesis. They often dont taste like much if they are not sour like hell and I get a bloody mouth from eating them (their skin cuts my gums).

what's the alternative? A banana imported from Costa Rica. Not bad...An Orange from Spain? Too big a mess. A kiwifruit? Great, but expensive!!!

Only around Christmas time, I enjoyed fruits because fresh mandarins could be found in the supermarket in abundance. Mix these with chocolates, biscuits (there we go again) and I can smell and taste Christmas.

In Thailand, things are obviously different. I do eat a biscuit or two, or a bit of chocolate, but very rarely. This is the land of plenty. Nearly every fruit can be had here, and they are GOOOOOD!

Usually, I stock at least 3 types at home, and rather eat fruits for breakfast than bread, butter and jam.

I took pictures of the fruit in my fridge.

First, pomelo. I think this is the fruit I eat the most. It's like a bigger grapefruit, only not bitter. Its little bits do not disintegrate easily, so you can just break off bits. It tastes like a meaty orange, but less sweet and juicy.


Sorry this is not a good example...it got a bit warm earlier on.

The second one. Everyone knows the mango of course. Everyone who's been to Thailand knows how a mango can taste. Heavenly! Now there isnt just one sort of mango, there are dozens. Last week, I even bought a round one!!!


The most common type of mango at the moment

And now we are entering royal territory. There is a title for the king and the queen of fruits. Strangely, I love the queen just that bit better than the king. (It's the other way around in bed;)

The king is durian. An infamous fruit. In the Singapore taxis there is a sign: durian not allowed. That's because of its smell!

The taste is more important though. Firstly I was surprised. It's greasy like no other fruit. And the taste, I cant describe it - but try. Mix white wine, cabbage, nuts but sweet! A godly fruit!


A big bite of durian. The whole fruit is huge and thorny

Then, the queen, and my favourite fruit of all. Strangely, it's also the ugliest.

But when you open up a mangosteen, the rind purple-red and the inner flesh shiny white, then you know something special awaits you.

Describing the taste is difficult again. It's so fresh and clear, sweat, fragrant, perfumed. The last time I ate some I just moaned and told the bf that he has to fight hard to give me a better orgasm than this little ugly fruit:)


Mangosteen, ugly but delicious

Blog under construction

As recent visitors might have noticed, a few things have changed on this blog. I felt the changes were overdue and bitchofbangkok.blogspot.com deserved an update.

It's however not a complete overhaul, more like a face-lifting. Not botox however, the blog is not that old yet:)

So what's new so far? Obvsiouly, the colours and the banner. The last banner was the view from my old condo, but I dont live there anymore. The new banner is my current view.

Just like fellow blogger bkkdreamer, I also felt that my header subtitle needs redoing. My circumstances have changed a bit since the beginning of the blog and the scope of the blog has widened too.

"my stories from the city of angels, my love for bangkok, my boyfriend and me, my trips, my opinions."

Regarding the colours, I felt that pink was fun and different, but grey, orange and blue is much classier but still beautiful. It's also more reader-friendly and your eyes will hurt less I think.

I have also made the main column much wider, so you dont have to scroll so far and more of the page gets used. Looks good, no?

Nearly 3 hours of my Saturday afternoon went into re-organising the labels. I have reduced them to only 11.



Most are self-explanatory. E.g. under "gay stories", you can find anectdotes and funny moments I encounter with gays.

Under "travels" you can read about my trips of course. This will ALWAYS include my own pictures.

Clicking "the beauty of men" will get you to a few picture series of men, which we all love, dont we?

I have also included two special cateories: "korea and me" because I do have a bit of an interest in Korea, and "i HEART bkk", which is my label for confessions of love for Bangkok.

The changes are not at all finished yet, I will re-organise and -assess my links and add more content. I will also re-work all the entries, so they are more appealing to read. I might even include a third column. You will see.

In its essence however, the blog is the same. I have made it much more pleasing to the eyes and easier to use though.

Athens and Bangkok

When we fondly think of moments, special places, a special athmosphere, music often plays an important part.

A few years ago, I spent a week in Athens. After the week passed, I had to admit that I loved Athens. I actually think Athens is not too dissimilar from Bangkok!

Why did I love Athens? It was not a very pretty city at all...

Yet, this city was alive! People were out during the day and especially at night. They went out drinking, walking and they were loud. The typical Mediterranean lifestyle I suppose.

There was more to this place though. First, there were the dogs. Stray dogs, like in Bangkok. They were aggressive though, not like the lazy soi dogs in BKK.

The city was also incredibly dirty. Rubbish everywhere, homeless people and many chaotic building sites, much like Bangkok in fact.

Then, the culture. Greece, just like Thailand is at the crossroads of culture. I dont want to give history lessons here (others can do that for me if they wish) but I could feel a particular mix of cultures.

When I went to a market, it could have been Lebanon, Libya or Sicily...but it was Athens.

The cityscape was similar too at times. Whenever I drive down Rama IV from Hua Lampong train station towards Si Phraya, I feel reminded of the big road up from the coast into the city in Athens...many lanes, a lot of traffic, a lot of chaos, many buses, dirty façades of shop houses...

And then there was the music. The moment which I will forever keep in my mind is driving down from the city to our hotel on the coast in a taxi. The open windows let us feel the warm evening breeze on our skin and the music playing in the taxi gave this scene a romantic touch.

I remember this moment because just before, I was listening to my favourite look tung (Thai country music) singer Tai Oratai. There's a song which reminded me of the Greek taxi song, and suddenly I felt like I was there in that taxi driving down the Greek highway three years ago.



I dont know the song that was played in that taxi, but I remember the feeling, and that's what's the same when listening to Tai Oratai. Both styles are extremely melancholic, dramatic and sad.

At the airport in Athens, I randomly bought a CD by a Greek singer, named Natassa Theodoridou, and luckily, the style matched the taxi song! I'll give a link to one of her songs.

Your friend dates your ex...

How could so many gay-related things happen, if I live happily in a relationship, dont go out to party much and dont go on dates with boys...?

But this is Bangkok, so gays are everywhere. And if you tell them that you have a boyfriend already, they will a)think you are still fuckable and b)will try to flirt you even more to win the competition...

I am not complaining though, it's fun to flirt a little bit. There are four different stories worth updating...crazy!


1. the condo technician. he is on camfrog as we speak, and was basically naked as I walked past his office before as I came home. I have the feeling he is giving a show to the public...

he also asked me earlier this week to come and watch porn with him. and he came to look for me when I was in the shower after a late-night swim...spooky stuff! I smelled the cigarette smoke but didnt hear him...

2. the badminton policeman. he is after all a POST man...I joined badminton last weekend even though my friend wasnt coming. That made it a lot more fun though.

I talked a lot to the postman and I must admit that I like him just a little big. He's a sweet guy. He complained that he doesnt have my telephone number, so I guess I had to give it...


3. The "classmate". Well he is in the new class anyway...I have added him on facebook, where I can see him ski in America and pose in Japan and on dinners at the British Embassy. On his facebook, he has about 400 friends, all Thai.

Am I impressed? No, I dont like hi-so people. Down to earth is the way to go!!!

I met him again on the toilet as he was putting on make-up on his face. I went into the cubicle and he just continued talking to me. That was annoying because I couldnt .... empty my bladder...

4. The real classmate, the guy I mentioned before when I wrote about Thais and who impresses me. He impresses me. Smart guy, very considerate, perfect English.

We are very close friends. He could be something like a "chef's recommendation."

Today we had lunch together at university, when he told me: "bb I have to tell you something, I dated someone you dated too."

I knew who it was. The hi-so guy whom I met twice back in September 08. He took me out to dinner, massaged me with oil and took me out for lunch again later. Then, I stopped contact because he was rude.

My classmate was so jealous of me at the time, so I gave him hi-so-guy's phone number - for fun. Classmate took it seriously and they started dating, only recently apparently.

The hi-so guy wanted to be boyfriends with my classmate even, but he refused and they stopped contact.

How odd...I mean normally you dont date your friend's ex-dates...I dont quite mind so much but I find it odd that me, as a farang, brought two Thais together.

All in all I really dont mind, although my classmate could have spared me the details: "Isnt his body perfect?" He asked. I grumbled.

Amphawa in the moonlight

Sunday, and it's time for another day-trip. I was a big busy and didnt feel like deciding, so I gave the boyfriend three options: floating market in Amphawa, explore Bangkok or a nosedive to Pattaya.

My darling made the right choice: Amphawa it is. The good news arrived last night from my Thai classmate: the floating market apparently only starts to get into drive after 4pm!

Wonderful, because from Thai markets I am more used to 4AM...So we got up late, after an "eventful" night, and took the minivan to Samut Songkhram town.

As the more experienced Bangkokians among you might know, there are a few small provinces around Bangkok, which are still kind of part of greater Bangkok, but do not form part of Bangkok province anymore.

To the south, there are the three "Samuts", all straddling the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, yet far from having beautiful beaches of course... Samut Prakan, Samut Sakorn and Samut Songkhram are awash with factories, fruit plantations and shrimp farms.

According to my dictionary, Samut means "sea"...I suppose it makes sense!

Anyway, we arrived at Samut Songkhram town and had lunch. Delicious "tot man" (fish
cakes), one of my favourite dishes in Thai cuisine, and some satay sticks.

YUMMY!

Then, we wandered around the town a bit, when we discovered the "train market". It's literally a market on the rails of the train. Of course, just as we arrived, the train came.

The vendors hastily moved away, leaving the food next to the tracks. The picture describes is better than my words:)

Train approaching, clearing the durians only by and inch or so

It was now afternoon, and we wanted to see the beach, or whatever there is right on the coast. We took a songteaw (loyal readers will know I love them!) to Don Hoi Lot, where we quickly discovered that we were not alone at all!

There were literally hundreds of Thai families picknicking on rented plastic mats, singing songs, drinking whisky, eating food and eyeing the farang and the "Japanese". There was a group of cute young fags who ogled us beyond belief!

I hear you say: he gets all this attention again. That's not because I am as handsome as Brad Pitt. That's because I go to places where there are no farang. In Silom, I wouldnt get ogled and flirted...


The "beach" in Don Hoi Lot

So, on with the story. This was actually not really a beach. Just a park which ended in the sea. The rest of the coast was covered wtih mangroves, so there is no sand. Unfortunately we didnt have time for a boat ride to the mangroves.

On we went to Amphawa floating market, the main destination of the trip. Amphawa is a major weekend destination for Bangkokians and that, we realised very quickly. It's a floating market where the food is prepared on the boat, while you eat it on the embankment. Kind of odd, I thought...

Amphawa floating market

The scene was fantastic though, with so many boats on the canal, people walking on the narrow walkways to the left and right of the canal, and foodstands everywhere.

Walking along the canal, we really enjoyed ourselves. This was Thailand at its best, lively, colourful, loud (karaoke music), yummy (the food), a festival for the senses.

After seing so many boats, we decided to join a tour. 1 hour for 60 baht, how cheap is that? We glided through the market, passed some Wats and suddenly found ourselves in the midst of mangrove forests and palm trees, interrupted by a few guesthouses and restaurants.

Suddenly, the moon in its full glory appeared just above the river and gave us a fantastic sight. It was, as the boyfriend said, like in a dream, or like in a movie. He was right, it was a very romantic and relaxing moment.

Romantic!

Then, we approached the shore and everyone looked into the dark bushes. I wondered why but not for long, because in the bushes, hundreds of fireflies blinked rhythmically, much alike houses in farangland arond christmas time.

This boat ride was truly magic.

Amphawa floating market by night

All in all, I can really recommend you going to Amphawa, especially the boat ride in the darkness! It's very romantic...