Linkin Park Live in Bangkok

Last week-end (I know I'm late) I went to see the concert of Linkin Park in Bangkok.


I must admit that I was surprised when I first heard that Linkin Park was coming to Bangkok. I was like "Why would they come here?" lol

Anyway, they did come. And even best was the ticket price to go to the concert.

For a place in the last category - meaning quite far away from the stage- I paid 600 bahts (or 13€).

This is 4 to 6 times less than what I would have paid in Paris.


I went with a lof of friends, French, German, Iranian and Thai. Yeah it's still united color of Benetton here.



So we went to the concert which was supposed to start at 5PM. The time was quite unusual and that should have brought our attention.

We arrive at the Impact Arena (a complex of buildings designed to host all kinds of conferences, fairs etc) at 4:30PM and it turned out that they were many guest bands playing before the actual apparition of Linkin Park at... 9PM!!



This could have been bearable if the guest bands were not playing some kind of Hardcore rock mainly made of horrible growls and wierd noises. Needless to say that it was incredibly painful for my ears.

Apparently there is one thai band named Ebola (yeah, just like the virus) which is very popular in Thailand. Id (not sure of the orthography), the thai friend was a great fan of them. Good for him.



While waiting, we went to some other buildings to find some foods. We ended up in one of these very common food center where you can find all kind of food, japanese, vietnamese, of course thai and western food. It was one of my worst experience in a Food center but I want dig that subject.


9PM found us in the middle of a huge crowd, made of normal people and less normal (meaning fanatic) people dressed in black and stuff.

Of course the concert started late, at 9h30PM.

Despite being quite far from the scene, I was seeing quite clearly what was happening on stage, and the 3 giant screens were there to help from times to times.



Speaking of the live prestation, it was HUGE, AWESOME, WONDERFUL and I can keep going like that for another page lol.

really, I was impressed by the quality of the show. The way the sets of lights were playing, the audio quality were outstanding.

I have the feeling that Linkin Park did come with their technical team, cause Thai people didnt really accustom me to that kind of quality (no offense, just a fact).


Linkin Park delivered a impressive performance too. I dont know how the singer manages to scream that much but I swear that If I try to do the same, I will lose my voice in less than half an hour.

I think that is one of the reason why the concert was that short. A mere 1h20, it was short but intense.


The audience was delighted during all the show, people were jumping around, singing half of the time. Of course, we had a fair share of more than just tipsy people.

It wasn't surprising, the were selling tons of beer outside, and the smallest format was a glass of...1 liter of beer.


I took very few pictures of the show, it was quite dark (it was an open air show), and I was quite far.


Overall, it was a great, enjoyable evening.

I'm still hesitant about going to the concert of Muse at the end of this month.
What do you think?

Pictures of Bangkok: Touristic places

I've made a post with pictures of normal Bangkok streets with cabs, buildings, ad banner and all those stuffs you have no idea how they look like until you come to visit Bangkok.

However, Bangkok as you know is also a very touristic city with a lot of beautiful temples and some interesting market.



These are the places I want to show here.


I created an online Album on my Picasa Gallery

I'm gonna add more and more pictures on this album.

Hopefully the embedded slideshow below will be updated automatically.









Feel free to comment and to visit my Picasa pictures gallery.

Thai Cuisine: Sweet and Sour Chicken

It's been a long time since the last time I blogged about food.

I know that you, readers, miss that so I'm gonna blog about it more often and I already have a bunch of food pictures.


Today dish is the quite famous and classic Sweet and Sour Chicken (can be Pork too).

Thai cuisine has a lot of dishes which mix sweet and salted. It's a little bit bizarre when You first try it but eventually you quickly get used to that.


So here are two pictures of this dish.

Of course, you eat this one with Rice (as usual).

Monitor Lezard spotted in AIT

AIT is a very green campus. To describe it best I would say that it's a bunch of buildings erected on the middle of a forest.

We are surrounded by trees, natural gardens and all kinds of insects that come with such an environment.

We even have a Lake (partly artificial but it still does the job) with a food booth nearby so that one can eat sitting just near the lake.


This welcoming environment leads to a very rich fauna and flora.

One day, I was going for lunch when I spotted this big monitor lizard near the lake.
It is one of the biggest lizard I've ever seen (actually IT IS the biggest).

you can see by yourself on the pictures below.
















As usual, feel free to comment.

Electric Wires In Bangkok: An Horror

Since I'm on the topic of Bangkok city, I feel the need to speak about what makes this city's streets simply UGLY most of the time: The electri wires everywhere!


For a reason yet to be discovered, you dont have one wire, or a set of wires neatly joined together, but rather a hard to describe jumble pack of uneven wires.


It really uncomfortable to have one of those wires loosely hanging at few centimeters of you when you are taking one of these bloody bridges you are force to take when you want to cross a road (but I'll blog about it later).
You don't really feel secure, trust me.

Since a picture worth thousands words, I let you have a look.









Leave your comment by clicking on the blue hyperlink showing "n comments" (n being the number of comments currently on the post lol).

Pictures of Bangkok

When people take pictures, they tend to take pictures of the most beautiful spots.

If you are in Bangkok for just a couple of weeks, it makes sense to focus on the Wat Po, the Royal Palace and other touristic attractions.


But I think that to really know how Bangkok looks like, you need to go beyond that.

That's why I've started to take casual pictures of BKK streets, to show a more "connected to reality" view of BKK streets.


So I've opened an album on Picasa which name is "Pictures of Bangkok" (how original is it? :D )






This is just the beginning, more pictures are to come.

So stay tunes

Pictures from Ko Samet

And now let get in the heart of the matter.

First the beach, the sand is soft, feels like a comfortable mattress.

The water is crystal clear, I was simply amazed.


We went from Ao thian to Ao Wai and, WAOH, the beach was even more beautiful and there was absolutely nobody. So basically we had the entire beach for us.

Say it was great is not enough. I was playing like a little children.

Since I'm a good guy (!) I had a (quick) thought for my friends in Europe which are in the middle of the autumn. And then I jump in the sea :D (yeah life is unfair what were you thinking).


Feel free to watch the slideshow embedded below or click on it to go to the album.

There are not that many pictures, sorry I was too busy actually enjoying the sea,sun (damn where was the sex? lol) to take a lot of pictures.







Feel free to comment as usual ;)

Trip to Ko samet (Thailand)

I blog about this quite some time after the trip but I was a little bit busy working on re-creating a software ecosystem for blogging.



Ko Samet is an island 3h hours away from Bangkok.

The bus ticket is 178 bahts (roughly 4€) one-way.

The bus leaves you in Ban Phe. From there you take a boat to cross the sea.

The cruise last roughly half an hour.

The boat ticket is around 100-150 depending on which Ao (meaning Bay) you are going to.


The boat left us at the northern part of the island (we arrived late so there was no other option).

We had to take a taxi to get to Ao Thian which is the southest part of the island.

we were looking for a beach as remote as possible to avoid the crowd. And Ao Thian looks like a very good yet affordable spot.


The taxi doesnt come to cheap (keep in mind it's an island). We shared the taxi with two other people who were not going as far as we were but it helped keep the price reasonnable, understand 300 bahts (for 2).


Ko Samet is, as a whole, a national park. I don't know what exactly they mean by that but I do know that it reduced the content of my wallet by 400 bahts EACH (9€) just to get on the island.

The "trip" to get to Ao Thian is quite long especially since the roads are the worst I've EVER seen in Thailand (and also the worst I've ever seen in the world).

This explains why all the taxis are Toyota pick-up. And since you sit at the back of the cab you better be free of any back aches whatsoever (at least when you get in the cab)


For the accommodation we choose a nice hotel just in front of the beach. We went for the VIP room (yeah I know life is cool sometimes) with a very nice bathroom, AC and TV (pretty much worthless unless you speak Thai)

That will set you up for 1200 bahts (28€).

I dont remember the name of the hotel, it was Coconut something.




We ate at the hotel restaurant. The food was GREAT and of course quite expensive (remember its an island!). But I must admit the prices are fairly decent.


Overall getting to Ko Samet is quite easy, the trip worth it and for the pictures check the next post.

For 2days, I would suggest to budget around 3000 bahts (roughly 65€) if you are looking for something in the mid-range.

A market on the train rails

Yesterday I was browsing and happened to pay a visit to the blog of my friend Max and I find these amazing videos.


Basically it's a market set up on the way of a train. Well words are not enough so here are the two videos.











Now a question: How crazy is that?
Feel free to leave a comment


Thanks Max for this one.

Funny thing in Thailand

While browsing, I stumbbled across this funny pic:







Yeah, I told you, life in thailand is full of funny surprise.

The Original post is here.

Weather in Thailand (BKK) during April

Well I like to blog on the weather here.

Usually I compare it with the weather in Europe and more specifically in France.

Normally I enjoy being there bacause the weather is usually better than in Europe.


But since one week, well lets say that its not so enjoyeable.

It's raining most of the time. Sometimes it's really impressive.

Last time we were going to a italian restaurant 20min far from AIT. Its was raining so hard that we couldnt see a damn thing 3 meters away.

The cab driver was a woman, and she was so worried she was driving incredibly slow.

Not only was that a little bit boring, but it was also dangerous since she was breaking abruptly quite few times.


We also had an incredibly violent. A LOT of trees in the campus did fall. It was impressive to witness it. Trees were cut in half by thunder and stuffs, power was also cut several times.


The good side is the temperatures drop. There are pretty nice, somewhere around 22 to 28 maximum.

Therefore I make less use of AC (air conditioner) which is also good for the environement.



I'm a lil bit worried about the rain because my holydays are coming very fast, and I dont want to backpack under the rain.

Speaking of my holydays I have quite a lovely plan. But lets save it for the coming post, shall we?

THE picture of Bangkok

 

Ok, the title can be misleading. But I really think that this picture can symbolize Bangkok.


Because is an inextricable mix of ultra-modernity and kind of traditionnal, old lifestyle.


You will find this modern building, a brand new subway, a crazy networks of roads and freeways, and as you can see, these nice,neat, clean subway stations (invaded by Advertising of course)

And side by side with the aforementioned building, you will see this kind of old building with funny colors.

And along the road, all these small shops, and the vans that you, litteraly, catch on fly.



I really like this mix.

As I often tell to my friends, Bangkok is this perfect mix of Paris and Douala.

Definitely the place where I want to be.


P.S: The girl on the ad is definitely hot.

One kind of Thai Mangos

 

 

 

This is how one kind of the thai mangos looks like.

It's totally
different from what we see in Africa where the inside is yellow.



You are supposed to eat that with the red sausage you can see on the pictures.

The sausage is made of sugar, shrimps and fish sauce. It's kind of salted though.

It's actually good, but I prefer eat the mango alone.


This kind of mango tastes a little bit like guava.

Oh this reminds me that I should show you how guavas look like here.

But this is another story.

Avoid International Roaming...

Unless you are insanely rich (or using a company telephone).

I've foolishly called France a couple of times using my french SIM card.


You may wanna know before you do that,that you will be charge 2.6 euros /minute if you call from Thailand.

I wish somebody has told me that before I placed this 20 min call.

It was for a good cause (saying Happy birthday), but I would have make it slightly shorter.


So now you know how much it costs to place a call from Thailand to France using a french SIM card.



BTW my mobile provider is Bouygtel.

Jajah Mobile and its shortcomings

I've already blog about Jajah.

Two days after my first post on Jajah, they send me a mail to tell me that they appreciate my post.

They also respond to one of my wish which was, being able to download Jajah mobile application for a Windows Mobile 2003 device.
This is what I'll talk about.


So, my request was actually to be provided with a way to use jajah when I'm not at home.

Their answer was actually the best one: Jajah mobile A web based form accessible with a simple browser.

So I jumped to the URL they gave me, log in and start using this system.

Needless to say that I was delighted to find all my profile informations and contacts on this mobile-specific website.

I bookmarked it, so I was able to place an international call for as low as 3cts (euros) within 2 clicks. And that's just great!


But they are some shortcomings.


First, I definitely think that Jajah need to really work on the quality of the communication. This stands for every calls no matter what mean was used to initiate the call.

I don't say that the quality is bad, but it's sure not constant enough.

Some calls do have a great voice quality, but some others are not so great.


The biggest disappointement I have is the fact that most of the times, it takes 2 or 3 attempts to get an actual communication.
Too often the first attempt fails because one end doesnt ear the other one.

If this is Ok when I call a europe landline number (around 3cts/min), it's almost intolerable when I'm calling a mobile in Africa ( 18cts thrown away for each attempt).

When I just want to pass an information, which typically will last 2 min, spending 1.5 euros, 70% for nothing is just not an option.


So Jajah if you read this, fix it. And you will enjoy happy customers who will spend more money using your system.


Secondly, they have a problem which is mobile specific.

When you initiate the call with the browser, you are using the GPRS connection which cannot be carry on along with a call.

So what happen too many times, at least here in Thailand, is that when Jajah will call you, they will fall in your voicemail because the GPRS connection is still active.

It's funny because they problem is due to the fact that Jajah is actually too fast.

So I suggest that they implement a kind of short timed delay before placing the call.



Overall Jajah mobile is an interesting service, especially in Thailand, where the prices are the same for mobile and landline calls (that's a topic I'll cover later).


But they are still some issues that needed to be adressed, rather sooner than later.

Weather News (Bangkok vs Paris)

My friends keep telling about the weather in Paris.

They did have snow on Monday, Rain on Tuesday, and of course a very cold weather on top op that.

The funny thing is that they were starting bragging one week ago about the nnice weather they had.


Since some have expressed some "concerns" about the weather here in Bangkok, let me dissipate your worries.

You do have a very nice weather here.

Temperatures has been lower since 2/3 days, so we do have a nice 26/28 during the day.

Today was slightly hotter though, we have something around 28/30 degrees celsius.


Yesterday was the first day that I spent entirely without air conditionning in my room.

The main advantage is the silence. The AC in our rooms are quite old systems so they tend to make some noise.

Nothing unbearable, but I do think that it affects somehow the quality of my sleep.


So to all the people living in West Europe, if the weather over there makes you feel depressed, you may want to come and spend some time here.

A good article on Prostitution in Bangkok

I don't have time to write about everything I can regarding life in Thailand in general and in bangkok area in particular.



That where the super blog of Maxim comes to be quite handy. So I gonna link quite often to the interesting posts he write.

The last article he wrote yesterday is on the prostitution problem in Bangkok. I didn't really visit bangkok at night so I didn't see it by myself.
I'll probably write about that when I will have more personal experience (ok dont get me wrong, I mean when I will see it in the streets by myself, not actually experienced it).



So here is the article, feel free to leave comments.

The silliest question about my trip (so far)

I do get some let say "curious" comments about my stay in Thailand.

It has started since I started telling to people that I'm gonna stay 18 months in Thailand.


Generally people seem to think that the World is made of Europe and North America and maybe China (lot of people are talking about China on the news so there must be something there). You may include the Maghreb (well since a lot of these people have "invaded" France we do notice them - Courtesy of my friends Nicolas Sarkozy and Philippe de villiers).

But that's pretty much all. The rest is some kind of exotic places, some kind of parallel world where you may spend a couple of weeks in holydays, take a picture of beautiful landscapes and go back to the World (see paragraph above for the definition of the World) saying how lucky the people who live over there are lucky to have such a beautiful country.



So, I do get some not so smart questions, but I've got a winner here.

So I have this old acquaintance right? Its been 7years since we lost each other of sight. So we came across on one of these social network.
And when I told him, he came out with this silly question
"For what on earth did you go to thailand for? You dont like your life anymore?"


What am I supposed to understand?
That one has to be really fed up with his life to live France for thailand?
The guy has no idea of what Thailand looks like , nor whats life like here but still he assumed that moving here should be some kind of desperate act.



So people I know that 90% of what you think you know about Asia (to be general) is made of cliche, it's not a big deal I was just like you a couple of months before.

But please, think a little bit before asking stupid questions.

That being said I will gently answer all your questions.

Funny things to see

 

Well during my excursion to science park (somewhere between AIT and Bankgkok) in my quest for the St Graal, understand contact lenses that are wearable by me, I happened to bumped into the funny baby elephant that you can see on the picture.

People didn't look surprise at all. So I assume that there is nothing extraordinary for them.

Let me know what you think.

Crazy temperatures (part II)

I know I've just posted about that but right after my post I went to Future Park (a huge Mall) in my everlasting quest for contact lenses that fit me well (I will talk about that in a coming post).

I miss word to describe how it was outside. I think that hell can't be hotter.


And for the oven experience previously describe, I said 1.5 well I was wrong, make it 2.5 to get a better idea. From now on I'll make I'm always in an ACed room in the afternoon.