Category: Photos

my week in signs


“jump for joy! you made it without wetting your pants!”

There’s always time for air hockey… with your gang.

No peddling measly wares, you Dickensian biotches (M-F 8:00 – 10:00AM)

The coolest car I saw this month. Some type of Hillman.

A line of mops, brooms, and scrub brushes marketed under the brand name BLACK MAN. So wrong, I just had to have one – now that’s marketing!

Overall, the sparse furnishing and utilitarian decor force us to recommend Mass Casualty Zone A over this one.

What starts in the men’s room ends in the man room.

A Thai Fish Sanctuary

Last weekend, a student called up and said he wanted to show me a local sight. “Well,” I figured, “whatever it is, it should beat the hell out of tipping water buffaloes on yet another Saturday afternoon.”
So the wife and I got in the car and picked up said student and his girl at her apartment. We drove about ten kilometers on back country roads with potholes nearly the size of our current ride, my sister-in-law’s cute blue Opel Corsa.
After nearly running over several wild chickens and sleeping dog, we arrived at our destination:

The entrance to Wan Macha Fish Sanctuary.
A fish sanctuary?

I’m just guessing it would suck to get stuck in a hungry catfish’s mouth.
Yes.

Don’t let the perspective fool you, some of these guys are longer than my leg.
After feeding the lake monsters, we walked around a bit to view the rest of the sanctuary. As it turns out, while they are obviously doing a great job of caring for the fish, the whole thing is ruined because they are keeping other animals under horrible conditions. I choose not to show most of them here (in fact, I chose not to not even take too many photos because it made me sick), but there were crocodiles, monitor lizards, several bird species, rabbits, guinea pigs, and a pair of foxes all kept in small cinder block cells like in some medieval zoo. Also, they were keeping adult monkeys isolated in one square meter cages made of chain link fence, which were blessedly cooler than the cinder block cells, but way too cramped, and the monkeys just looked like they wanted to die… They wouldn’t even eat the fruit we tried to give them. The only comparable lack of compassion and common sense I’ve ever seen was in a Kyushu zoo around ten years ago, when I saw a sick lion sitting in its own feces in 100 degree weather…
Anyway, more photos:

Now that’s a lawn mower.




I believe I’ve found Christmas Dinner!

A beautiful place, ruined by the ignorance of its keepers.
/////////////
For more catfish porn, see my Flickr set here.

A Vientiane Visa Run by Cameraphone

Rule number one: The Thai Delta Force is not going to save your gambling ass.

Comforting words at the Nong Khai border crossing, Thailand
The ghetto-est wheel lock ever (or maybe it’s a parking boot?):

A mobile ATM van (Thai Military Bank – doesn’t a MILITARY bank just seem safer?)
Welcome, Comrades!

“…some animals are more equal than others.”
Speaking of animals:

Fresh meat sleeping; their brothers are roasting in the background.
A restaurant (and Tandoori chef) in Vientiane we can heartily recommend:

Rashmi’s Indian Fusion, across the street from the Lao Plaza Hotel.
My favorite shot of the whole trip:

“Don’t flap your arms like a bird or God will strike you down!”

Trashdozer Kill Kill!

In some ways, living in a gated community of nice houses here in Thailand really makes me feel comfortable because it’s so similar to living back home. Then something comes along along that just blows my mind and serves to remind just how differently some things are done here. Case in point, the Trashdozer:

Trashdozer!

Kill Kill!
I have no idea why they don’t just use a garbage truck… Then again, if it was my job, I’d rather use a payloader, too.