whenbessattacks.com/japan » 2009

nerd, cheeze

so i’ve been looking around for some sort of thai-based fashion magazine, which is kind of hard since i don’t really know any other language than english (and maybe 3 sentences in french… “bonjour, je suis americanne. je parle un PEUX de francais… est ce que je peux tailler mon crayon?” …which aren’t helpful at all here) so often times i don’t know if a magazine is thai-based or just a thai version of another magazine. i think i found a couple of good ones that are actually based out of thailand (thanks to google translate and magazinedee.com):

the first on i found is called “nerd”, which is geared more towards teenagers. there’s definitely a nerd theme running through it, a good handful of the pictures feature models wearing stereotypical nerd glasses – the ones with round, thick, black frames. kind of cute actually! it’s also one of those 2-in-1 magazines… where both covers act as front covers. flip it over and voila – a whole nother (screw you, grammar police) magazine!

nerd magazine, front:

nerd magazine, other front (back):

cheeze magazine i think i like a little better. it’s specifically thai street style, which is really cool… unfortunately it’s only a quarterly magazine i think. they just celebrated their 5th anniversary, and the party was sponsored by mtv (which is better outside the u.s…. we get mtv china and they actually play a lot of music videos) and lomography.com among others. so i’m guessing it’s a pretty big magazine, and a decent gauge of thai trends as far as fashion goes. there’s a TON of pictures, which is great because i can’t read the language. there’s some d.i.y. sections that seem pretty easy to follow without being able to read the instructions, and some sections on specific trends, like fixed-gear bicycles, backpacks, etc. unlike nerd magazine, they have a pretty strong web presence, with a website and facebook page as well as an
online store where you can buy stuff or check out featured boutiques.

this month/quarter’s theme is military style… not my absolute favorite, but there’s some pretty cool things inside:

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kad suan kaew central mall

me and shaun get our groceries from the tops grocery store in one of the huge malls in chiang mai, the kad suan kaew central mall. it’s just outside of the north-western corner of the old city wall and has a bajillion stores in it. the stores range from some pretty cool, trendy boutiques to venues where you can buy rip-off levis for like $5USD. we passed by a place selling ultra cheap dvds and saw two seasons of one tree hill for $2USD apiece! one tree hill is shot in wilmington, nc, which is where we just moved from.

we took a tuk-tuk there (i’m looking a little cockeyed here, and i think shaun’s trying to play it cool):

the mall is huge!

right inside the entrance is a shrine to (i think) the three kings – king mengrai, the founder of chiang mai, king ramkamhaeng of sukothai, and king ngam muang of payao. according to legend, they worked together to lay out the city of chiang mai:

we then ate at the pizza company, which is pretty much pizza hut in the states, except they have some exotic toppings that i’m too chicken to try. this particular pizza company has a bitchin’ view of the street in front of the mall:

kad suan kaew has a really cool outdoor area:

there’s this crazy dragon fountain… usually it’s shooting water out of it’s mouth but today it was off. there’s some big koi fish in the water, too:

the phra phom (thai representation of the hindu god brahma) shrine is freaking huge! big enough for a children’s playhouse:

the spirit house itself isn’t as huge, but still fancy as far as spirit houses go (i’m not so sure that these are specifically for the landlords, i think that spirit houses are just used to house spirits that might cause problems if they’re not appeased):

Filed under: chiang mai, places to eat, places to shop, spirit houses, thailand by Administrator
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new ad for edge of urge

photoshopped together three separate photos… they each had different lighting, so it was a challenge to make it look like they belonged together (at least make it look not obviously photoshopped to the average magazine reader)

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in chiang mai, seeing an elephant doesn’t mean you’re drunk (necessarily)

so there’s this cluster of bars really close to where we live… it’s pretty cool, there’s always live music in one or more of them, and the people are really laid back. there’s a ton of alt 90s music, which is excellent (anyone who knows me know i have grown weary of the retro 80s crap that’s been going on since the 80s ended… enough is enough! bring on another decade for crying out loud! anyway…). it really brings me back to when i first was getting into music, lots of nostalgia and whatnot. me and shaun went and got more than a few chang beers there the other night. we were sitting outside and a baby elephant came up! it was so awesome, though i did feel kind of bad for the little guy, walking around the city. apparently some elephant handlers bring their elephants out at night and get people to buy sugar cane off of them to feed them. it was pretty cool to just see an elephant hanging out though. we didn’t get a picture, but i’m sure we’ll see more. rad! we danced for the rest of the night to the band playing inside. it was really fun, but the next morning i felt like that elephant had come home with us and sat on my head all night. it was worth it though.

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more spirit houses

so i think i’ve figured out the little shrine/spirit houses thing – there’s usually two little houses, the smaller one is for the landlords (figurines representing the landlords are inside of the house) and is usually smaller, and the bigger one is for a statue of a god or spirit or something. the colors of the houses vary on the landlord’s birth month. pretty cool!

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el diablo’s heavenly burritos

damn good burritos! and they’re huge! me and shaun got a burrito apiece with complimentary chips and salsa for under $8USD. el diablo’s is located near the tha pae gate, on the other side of the street. highly recommended! great food, decent price, and good music.

got home, awesome night view from the balcony! you can see wat doi suthep on the mountain, on the right:

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Tanya’s

we just got back from eating at this place called tanya’s. it’s on ratwithi road, close to the yupparaj wittayalai school that’s on the corner of phra pokklao and ratwithi roads. it’s a decent meal for thai prices… pretty much everything on the menu was under 25 baht (that’s less than a dollar! the menu was a pretty wide selection of fried rice, noodle, and cooked animal dishes. i got pork fried rice, shaun got pork fried rice with chili sauce. we both got mineral waters, and shared a fried banana sunday. the portions weren’t huge, but they definitely weren’t meager either. the whole meal for both of us cost 77 baht, which is under $2.50USD. good deal!

lots of people ride scooters around the city. when we were walking to tanya’s we passed by the place where the school kids park their scooters. so many:

mmmm water:

we’re guessing that the poster boards with slips of paper tacked to them all around the restaurant are betting pools of some kind… lots of football/soccer posters on the walls: