Category: Thai Society/Culture

“Sweet Christmas!”

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I saw a two-ton water buffalo almost get hit by a speeding two-ton pickup this afternoon. I couldn’t help but wonder who would have walked away from an accident like that. Maybe Luke Cage. Of course, if Luke Cage drove in Thailand, he’d be getting out of the car every five minutes to smash the shit out of people who cut him off, suddenly decided to pull a U-turn in the middle of the street, or some other unthinkably dangerous shit. Homeboy would be poppin’ off like firecrackers, yo.
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Note: It seems that John Singleton is making a Power Man movie called “Luke Cage”. (The gem on that page: “This plot synopsis is empty.”)

1971 Toyota “Kujira” Crown S60

I need another car – just a reliable beater to convey me around town – since I want Nam to drive the Cefiro (and its newfangled safety features) when we move to the new house. The new house is within walking distance of my university, but I need something for rainy days and whatnot. I think I’ve found a good candidate:

Behold the Kuj

 


That’s an honest-to-god classic car (4th generation S60), with prices to match both in Japan and the states. I think I can get this one for about a thousand USD. There are a lot of classic Japanese cars being driven around on a daily basis in Thailand. One of the reasons is that maintenance and repairs are so cheap. Another is that they often aren’t considered classic here, just old – which is a shame for the cars, but great for people who love them.
The Toyota “Kujira” Crown was apparently not very popular in Japan when it was released, except among Osaka taxi drivers (according to one of the links above). It also got some airtime on TV shows at the time, but the avant garde looks were just too kick-ass for that stiff-upper-lip generation of Japanese sheeple, I guess. Oh, well.
This particular specimen has a secret under the hood that should make it anything but a whale (kujira = “whale”) on the road: A “silvertop” Nissan RB20DE !!! That’s the non-turbo powerplant for a type 32 Skyline!
It also has the matching drivetrain and 5 speed manual gearbox.
I promised myself I would think about it for at least a day, but I’m having a hard time waiting until tomorrow… The first thing I’m going to do is put the wing mirrors out on the hood like they oughtta be… Then I’ll have the body restored (there’s a bit of rust in places, the owner says) to look something like… this.
What say you?

UPDATE: I’ve just talked to the owner and it sounds like he’s taken very good care of it. I told him I want it; now it’s just a question of enacting the sale and slogging through any related paperwork, which I have no idea about. Yay!

UPDATE: This is what my MS-60 Kujira Crown looks like now: http://cosmicbuddha.com/2012/03/the-toyota-kujira-crown-reborn/

Dragonfruit in Bloom

Four or five months ago, Nam’s mother had couple of pitaya plants shipped back from her hometown of Surin (famous for their annual elephant festival and silk weaving). They were pitiful little things tied to a curious looking concrete dais-in-a-planter type of setup. I kept meaning to take photos of them back then for before and after comparison photos, but it was only a few weeks before they started shooting up, doubling, tripling, and growing to ten times their original size…. And they aren’t even full grown yet.
The thing is, we kind of forgot about them sitting there in the yard, because aside from their utterly alien appearance close up, they were just green plants on a green background, and truly unremarkable otherwise… during the day. Last week we went out for a drink for the first time in a while and returned around midnight. This is what was waiting for us:

Feed me, Seymour!

Get outta my way! – Survival of the fittest.

God must have been going through his “Giger” phase
(all photos by Nam!)
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Bonus “strawberry pear” trivia: In Thai, they call the pitaya (aka dragonfruit) a “dragon’s egg,” which is probably the most apt name for anything, ever.

Fugu me? No, fugu you!

From the “you shouldn’t be eating salmon in Thailand anyway” department:

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) – Unscrupulous vendors in Thailand have been selling meat of the deadly puffer fish disguised as salmon, causing the deaths of more than 15 people over the past three years, a doctor said Thursday.
Although banned since 2002, puffer fish continues to be sold in large quantities at local markets and restaurants, said Narin Hiransuthikul of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University Hospital.
“Some sellers dye the meat of puffer fish and make it look like salmon which is very dangerous,” Narin said.
Narin said over the past three years more than 15 people have died and about 115 were hospitalized from eating the fish.
The ovaries, liver and intestines of the puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin, a poison so potent that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can “produce rapid and violent death.”
The fish is called fugu in Japan, where it is consumed by thrill-seeking Japanese gourmets for whom the risk of poisoning adds piquancy.
Every year, there are reports of people dying or falling sick in Asia from eating puffer fish. Eating the fish can cause paralysis, vomiting, heart failure and death.

(Full story)
I call bullshit on this story. It sounds like an urban legend. Color aside, puffer meat neither looks nor tastes anything like salmon meat… and anybody that unfamiliar with the fish in question wouldn’t have to be convinced that it was salmon in order to buy it. It could just be sold cheaply, as is. Why go to the trouble of dying it?
Also, the second to last paragraph about Japanese eating fugu for thrills is something oft-seen in the foreign press, but was never evident in all the years I was living in Japan (everybody I knew ate fugu because they liked the taste). I’ve even heard claims from Japan know-it-alls that fugu chefs leave just enough tetrodotoxin on the flesh to give a thrill (but not enough to kill), but I never saw any evidence of this either. The two fugu chefs I asked about it laughed at the question. They also stated that the chances of convincing a licensed fugu chef to prepare fugu livers, ovaries, or intestines for a customer’s thrills are pretty much zero these days.

Carabao’s Made in Thailand Cover by Farang

In my ten months here, I’ve heard this song (which was written by Carabao) performed live dozens of times by many bands… As corny as this clip might seem, this guy’s rendition is the best I’ve ever heard.
I basically cannot stand pop music from any country, but Thai pop is especially insipid IMHO. The traditional Thai music is fascinating, though, even if I can’t understand 90% of the lyrics. It has a lot to do with the energy of it, the groove, especially a live performance.
(thx t)

fruit sacrilege

Thai farmers dumped a ton of mangosteens on the street in front of city hall to protest the low selling price. I’m pretty sure all the government workers rushed out to scoop up their share.
3 baht per kilo does sound pretty low, though. They retail for 18-20 baht/kilo up here in the northeast; the best quality ones at their peak went as high as 25 baht/kilo a couple months ago.
I do have to say that if you’ve never had a fresh mangosteen, you are missing out on one of life’s real pleasures.