Our New Wii July 21, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Leisure , add a comment
We had an expensive weekend. Instead of traveling during the Friday - Sunday holiday, we decided to go shopping.
I’m not a fan of watching TV but Tik’s been compaining that she doesn’t get a chance to follow Thai news anymore. She’s been keen to get a TV for a while and I wanted a Nintendo Wii for myself which needs the TV to play on.
After doing some comparison shopping and online research last Friday we settled on what we wanted and got ourselves a 40" Sony Bravia TV with DVD player and home theater sound (a little bit of overkill in our 100m2 apartment) and a US Wii with 10 games to get us started.
We haven’t got UBC TV installed, and we aren’t really sure if we want it. Tik can now watch the free Thai TV stations - although reception isn’t great.
We’re both really enjoying the Nintendo Wii though. It’s tiring and although my favorite games is probably Mario Kart, Tik’s spent most of her time with Wii Sports Golf and ‘Brain Train’. We had a friend over yesterday who really enjoyed playing it.
The Nintendo Wii’s quite a niche product in Thailand as the only versions available are imported Japanese or US versions. They also require you to have a large area to move around in if you’re going to make the most of it. We’re hosting another party next month and are looking forward to having our friends play a tournament with it.
We Will Rock You July 21, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Leisure , 2comments
Tik and I went to see ‘We Will Rock You’ last Thursday at the Muang Thai Rachadalai Theatre in Bangkok.
This was a live musical with the international traveling cast. The theater is, from what I understand, Thailand newest (and possibly only) proper theater and opened less than 12 months ago. It was clean, modern and very impressive, by both Thai and Western Standards.
There have been a number of big-name shows in Bangkok over the last 18 months including ‘West Side Story’ (regrettably missed that one), ‘Cats’ (glad not to have seen that) and now this.
‘We Will Rock You’ takes you through a well-staged display of famous Queen songs through a badly-written script by Ben Elton. Script aside, if you like Queen songs the show delivered over 2 hours of talented singing, ok dancing and some great staging and special effects.
Quite thoughtfully this live musical actually came with Thai subtitles that were displayed on 4 TV screens at the sides of the stage in realtime.
It ws sad that the theater was perhaps only one-third full. At over 1,000 for the cheapest seats this type of entertainment is just not practical for most Thai couples. If the theater realized that a live musical is a greater experience for the cast and audience if the seats are full then perhaps they could make efforts to reduce ticket prices and make shows accessible to the masses.
A write-up of ‘We Will Rock You’ can be found here.
Bang Krachao Park - “The Lungs of Bangkok” July 5, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Leisure, Thailand , add a comment
When we have no plans for a weekend Tik and I enjoy getting out of the condo to get some fresh air.
We’ve visited the main parks in Bangkok but as we were both lamenting about how we’d like to find somewhere different we discovered a newspaper article about a park that’s only about 20 minutes drive from us. We decided to go there with our Friend David and his 2-year old daughter Jessica.
The park is close to the best floating market I’ve ever been to. We arrived there at about lunchtime yet it was not uncomfortably busy. The fresh food was great value, the area was clean and there was a lot of local crafts that we’d not seen anywhere else.
This was a big day for Jessica as she’d never left Anna for so long and she was very well behaved.
Whilst David and Jessica enjoyed the pedalo, Tik and I hired a bike and cycled round. We were delighted to find a 4-storey viewing platform where we could see our condo from.
Here is a link to The MyLife Article
Expat Blues May 31, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Leisure , add a comment
On May 31st Tik and I went to see the amateur dramatic comedy ‘Expat Blue’ at the Novotel Lotus hotel in Bangkok.
Tickets cost about 1,500 baht each and included a comprehensive buffet dinner before the show began. We’d have not known about this at all if it hadn’t been for a friend of ours spotting a mention of it in the newspaper.
It’s rare to find live plays in Bangkok and we were keen to support them. Having lived in Bangkok for nearly 7 years now and having spent pretty much all my free time with Tik for the last 4 years it’s important for us to look for different things to occupy us.
I didn’t have expecially high expectations for Expat Blue but both Tik and I were very impressed with it. Comedic aspects touch on truisms that myself and probably every expat here has comment on in frustration at times. Sketches included the farcial life of the high-society expat wives here, the Sukumvit Road tourist area that, due to vendors, elephants, touts, a completely ridiculous cycle lane that runs right through the center of the already-slim pavement is nearly impossible to walk along.
The show made both of us laugh out loud at many times. Nearly every joke hit home as something relevant to me and Tik probably fely very assured that it uisn’t jsut me who pokes fun at Thailand life.
The only thing that we really did not like was the blue transvestite character (see photo) that served at compere for the show. The character was annoying, humorless and, if you were Hindu quite insulting. It seems that the acress playing the character must have iniststed in using her trademark character as part of the play and by the erscond act I could feel my blood pressure rising when one act finished and she returned to the stage.
A newspaper preview of Expat Blue can be found here.
March Brides Party May 8, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Friends, Leisure , add a comment
Tik and I hosted our first big party at our condo.
Before we got married last year Tik got in contact with a group of Thais who were also getting married in March 07. The group were part of a Thai wedding website called Wedding Square and the participants discussed the preparations for their wedding there.
We’ve kept in touch with most of these people and have been invited to two parties in the last few months.
This time we invited everybody over to our place.
Neither Tik nor I are big drinkers, we don’t have a TV and liked the challenge of keeping a large group of people entertained without relying on beer and TV. Throughout the party there were about 6 couples.
The party was a great success, we’d hoped to have a few games of tennis here but a short spell of rain made the court too wet. Most of the time we stayed in the condominium, playing card games, eating lots of food and talking.
As only a few of our Thai friends speak confident English, it’s a great opportunity to practice my speaking and listening skills and the guests were all friendly and great fun.
We ended the day in the pool where we had the opportunity to test out our new waterproof camera.