Mystery VIP Car, Khon Kaen

I raced this car home back to Sarakham last week.

Perhaps the ugliest sedan I've ever seen.
Perhaps the ugliest sedan I’ve ever seen.

I guess the driver was worried about spilling his Grey Poupon, because he had me on the straightaways (kind of rare because my wife’s VQ30-powered Cefiro A33 smokes almost everything under 2 million baht; such is the sad state of affairs in many road-tax-by-engine-displacement countries) , but slowed way down on the curves. I’m kind of sad because I don’t even know what kind of car it is, but if I had to guess — Chinese Bentley? Korean Cadillac?

Either way, it was hideous. Almost as bad as the ugliest car ever made, which I’ve been seeing kind of often lately.

UPDATE: Of course, Chris the master of all things with engines, called it – this is definitely a Mitsuoka, probably a Galue-III. It’s the first I’ve ever seen, having been in Thailand almost the whole time they’ve been produced, and it totally matches with what I saw. On another page it says this car “incorporates styling touches from such classic designs as the ’94 Cadillac Fleetwood.” Also, the specs indicate it was loaded with the same type of engine in our Cefiro, but newer and with higher output – either a VQ-25HR or VQ-35HR. Interestingly enough, the Galue-III was made in both RWD and AWD.

Dynamite

A couple of Pinoy exchange students came over to the house last month to make some food, and we had a party with their classmates and some teachers. In order to avoid posting any incriminating evidence, I will limit myself to a single photograph here:

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Making the fabled dish called Dynamite. Some of these peppers are just a little spicy, but about 1 in 5 are head-exploders. The peppers are stuffed, then rolled in a long egg roll skin and deep fried.

One of these kids was about half my age and played really classic songs on the guitar – it’s unnerving to hear songs from when I was a child played by someone younger than the original artists’ kids (or maybe even grandkids!) – Woodie Guthrie, Kansas, Bread, etc., etc., I want an 8-track player for my Crown now.

Also, the food was really good.

Thanks, Bryllie and Job! Maybe I’ll make it around to the University of Luzon some time..

Things to chew on

I hate waiting.

When I’m waiting somewhere in an office, or in a line, or in a classroom with nothing better to do, I find myself thinking about other things that annoy me.

Like, you know when you’re walking in an air-conditioned shopping mall in a third world country, with only tall glass separating your sterile consumerist biosphere from the rotten hell that surrounds you? The knowledge that when you step outside those doors, the stench of poor people will cling to your chest, so why not walk around some more? Being born into this world where you’ve been lucky enough to be among the people wasting time inside, as opposed to one of the desperate souls rooting through the garbage looking for cans outside, is the ultimate reason you’re able to justify the guilt of being in such a position – it really wasn’t your doing anyway.

Or, you know when you see old houses that haven’t been kept up and some of the roofing tiles are missing or out of place?

Or how seeing some young asshole reminds you of yourself (maybe not so) long ago?

Yeah, shit like that annoys me.

That’s why I hate waiting.