Who says the Thai Police Are Useless? August 26, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Thailand , add a commentQuote from
today …
ландшафтDeputy police spokesman Pol Maj Gen Surapol Tuanthong told reporters, "The protesters must leave the government compound before 6:00pm, otherwise they will be asked to leave."
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
10 Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion May 30, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Thailand , add a commentI’m a proud atheist, and whilst I apologize if this article offends you, I really felt it deserved some publicity. It’s a very eloquent summary of why religion fails us.
Kudos to Steve Pavlina, the article writer. The article is perhaps a little over-confrontational but it’s refreshing to see a person with an excellent reputation risk the wrath of his religious readers on being so down-to-earth. I enjoy reading articles like this that perhaps give agnostics something to think about. It is written with some subtle sarcasm in it which might make some readers feel the article’s exaggerated but I expect controversy is going to bring a lot of publicity to his site.
I really do feel that a lot of people are beginning to question religion. Articles like this help people to gain confidence in their questioning of religion.
I was also very pleasantly surprised that, despite Steve’s forum receiving 190 posts about this one article, only a handful of these posts came from any offended religionists (I wonder if any posts got deleted though). The forum members were refreshingly open to this article.
I wonder if we’re now a part of a more analytical generation which is no longer prepared to accept doctrines for the hell of it (pun intended).
Here’s a link to Steve’s Full Article
My First Underwater Shot May 8, 2008
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After destroying our old camera when we capsized our kayak in Koh Mak we splashed out (pun intended) on a waterproof version. This was the first shot I took. It wasn’t taken intentionally (I was trying to photograph Tik’s face but i didn’t have my goggles on). It reflects the hours of fun I’m going to have with this new toy though.
Holiday in Koh Mak May 1, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Leisure, Thailand , add a comment
We decided to take a weekend away to Koh Mak and stayed at the CocoCape Resort.
Koh Mak is a few hours drive south of Bangkok, near to Koh Chang. I’m not sure how we decided on the resort but it was probably on the recommendation of one of Tik’s friends.
We’d actually arrived during the rainy season, although, nothing to me is more relaxing than being in a small wooden hut, nice and cosy, when the rain is pouring down.
We did have spells of great weather and used it to explore the island, walk down the beach and read by the hut.
For the first two nights we were in a wooden hut that, if the resort photos are to be believed should have been situated Maldives-style over the sea, however perhaps due to the season and low tide, was about 20 meters away. Our immediate environment was just mud flats.
Service at the CoCoCape Resort was a bit lackluster and we gave up waiting to be served for breakfast one morning when the waiter just refused to even acknowledge us.
The last night we upgraded to a suite which was a little more inland but afforded us the luxury of a large bed, a bath and an elevated view of the swimming pool and the sea.
Our last full day was especially memorable because we foolishly dated to kayak to a neighbouring island as the sky began to gray. We arrived on this beatiful island in the middle of a torrential tropical storm, knowing that whether it subsized or not we had to brave the rough waters to return to the resort within a few hours.
Tik did especially well in the Kayak seeing as she only learnt to swim a few years ago. We learnt the hard way that the heavier of the two kayakers should sit at the back of a Kayak. If you don’t do this then, as we discovered, the kayak is prone to capsize. Tik struggled initially to get back in but managed it eventually. The only casualty was our camera that got bathed in seawater but thankfully we did salvage all photos.