Posted by Shady
Sat, 26 May 2007 08:54:00 GMT
Went to pattaya for a night before leaving for Koh Samed this weekend. Pattaya is what most people who tell you about Thailand are talking about when they tell you about Thailand. Most of Thailand isn't like that at al, but Pattaya and Phuket pretty much give the rest of the country a somewhat questionable reputation. It's loud, kind of skeezy, and is the nexus point for every single Creepy Old Guy in the known universe.
Truth be told, not all of Pattaya is like that. When you come in from Bangkok, it looks more or less like any other place in Thailand. As you get closer to Pattaya City proper, however, you notice an increase in three things:
- Neon Lights
- Foreigners (seriously, they're so common I didn't get stared at a single time here
- Questionably dressed females
These three things slowly increase in number until you reach the famous Walking Street. Think of it as a mini vegas strip, but with less class and taste.
The walking street is filled with foreign tourists going bar hopping, to come visit their particular go-go bar, and hundreds of Creepy Old Guys walking around with women who were, at best, old enough to be their daughters. In several cases, granddaughters was far more likely. Even the younger tourists have this kind of sleazy aura about them.
Each bar seems to have it's own house band composed of either 1)expats living the dream of being in a rock band (and sucking) or 2)Thais doing covers of english songs (and sucking). At one of the bars I visited with my friends, I had the privilege of witnessing a very white, very jewish expat living his own personal dream (apparently) of being a rapper. Yes, he rapped live with a backup band, and his partner for some duets was a real, live ladyboy. It was the sort of thing you read about in travel guides (or some tools blog) and wonder if it really happens.
On the whole, I really didn't care much for Pattaya. It was loud, expensive, and there were way too many Creepy Old Guys and Hos. The shopping isn't so bad, but everything else can take a running jump.
I much preferred Koh Samet, Ayutthaya, and pretty much anywhere else I've seen to Pattaya.
Posted in Travel, Thailand | Tags thailand, travel | no comments
Posted by Shady
Mon, 21 May 2007 04:05:00 GMT
Went to Ayutthaya over the weekend. It's only about an hour and a half by bus from Bangkok.
The ride itself isn't too bad; nothing special scenery wise, and at some of the stops they'll let vendors into
the bus to sell you food and drinks.
The first stop of the trip was to see Wat Mongkolbopit, a unctioning Wat not ruined near the entrance to the ruins of Wat Prasisanpet.
Ayutthaya was the capital of thailand in the past, and it was also sacked by the Burmese twice during the many, many
wars Thailand fought with Burma. As a result, you can find lots of ruins in Ayutthaya, in addition to the usual
plethora of Wats. The primary ruins are the ruins of Wat Prasisanpet which was the private chapel for the royal
family back when Ayutthaya was the capital. It also houses the ashes of three previous kings of Thailand, in three
huge stupas, which you can see in the gallery Ayuttaya, inside the Thailand gallery.
Although Wat Prasisanpet was destroyed by the burmese, Wat Yaichaimongkol was built after Ayutthaya was reclaimed a second
time, and as a result is in much better over all shape. You can still see the buddha statues made of stone, and they
are still a fully functioning temple to this day. You can find a reclining buddha here, as well as some other large ones.
The third and final Wat that I visited today was Wat Pananchueng. This wat is a mix of Chinese and Thai styles, and for the Chinese,
the buddha here is considered to be the protector of sailors. The buddha here is simply huge, and at one point it was
exposed outside, where it could be seen for quite a distance. At this wat one of the things that you can do, is to pay 10 baht
and get large bag of fish food. You walk out onto a dock, and feed the huge numbers of catfish that congregate here.
Although you can ride elephants around in Ayutthaya, I didn't get the chance to do that. I did however get some pics taken
with the pachyderms, and I recommend that anyone who goes to Ayuttaya do so. They're pretty smart and who doesn't love elephants?
Finally, I had the pleasure of a river dinner cruise around Ayuttaya. Ayuttaya is surrounded on all four sides by river, which is why
it was originally chosen as a capital. You can order a wide variety of delicious foods (Fried Boar with Curry Sauce!) and watch the
scenery go by. There are several companies that offer this type of dinner cruise, but the one I went with is the Pasak River Queen. It's he biggest
boat, a dual level ship with the first level enclosed and air conditioned. The second level is open on all sides.
The only down side to this is having to sit through some rather appalling karaoke (seriously, you don't know
bad karaoke until you hear the engrish version of Zombie by The Cranberries). However, bad singing aside this really is an awesome way to end the day.
You can see all the pictures from Ayutthaya here
Posted in Travel, Thailand | no comments
Posted by Shady
Mon, 14 May 2007 08:59:00 GMT
You can find them in the gallery named Thailand.
Gallery sucks. Hard. Pics are down until I fix it.
Gallery still sucks, but the pics are
back up.
Posted in Oops, Travel, Thailand | 1 comment
Posted by Shady
Mon, 14 May 2007 05:38:00 GMT
It's hot. Really hot. I got off the plane at 11:30 PM and walked into 94 degrees of heat plus pretty high humidity. This is going to take some getting used to.
If you're staying or going anywhere off the beaten path, prepare to be stared at. By everyone. I know it's nothing bad or what have you, but it's quite unnerving to have whole groups of families or other people staring at you. And not the polite staring, were they look away when you look at them staring either. Oh no. The full on holy-crap-what-the-hell-is-that type of staring. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually.
Wats (temples) are everywhere here. Taking the bus from my apartment to KU university, I pass no less then 4 wats. It looks like every district and subdistrict has there own, not to mention various types all around for no particular reason. It's interesting to say the least. Even the non-touristy ones are amazing inside, with gold and decorations that are simply astounding.
Did I mention it's hot?
Hired transit options are abundant, far beyond simple buses (which come in two types, by the way air conditioned and non). Motorcycle taxis are available at pretty much every street corner, and those guys are absolutely insane. Weaving in and out of traffic (with passengers!) and squeezing between trucks on the streets. The infamous tuk tuk is also available, as are taxi-vans, the skytrain, water taxis, and hired vans for day trips. These are much different then any normal van you're used to. Pimp my ride has nothing on these guys. Fully reclining 9 seats, entertainment system (with karaoke... ugh) climate control, and gps. For a couple thousand baht, they take you pretty much all over Thailand. It's awesome.
Thai bathrooms are strange. Not if you've ever used any bathrooms in the rest of asia, but if you're not used to them, it's a culture shock. And in a country where the temperature never drops belwo 80 degrees, it's tough to find a hot shower if you are not staying in a hotel. Since I'm not staying in a hotel, I've gotten used to cold showers. I still havent gotten used to the whole bathrrom being the shower, however.
That's all for now, I'm going to try to filter through the more then 100 (yes, really) pictures I've taken so far and put them up in the gallery. I'll post some links here when I do.
Posted in Travel | Tags thailand | no comments
Posted by Shady
Tue, 08 May 2007 01:50:00 GMT
It's off to... Thailand I go.
Incidentally, Hi Ho is NOT what I will be saying to most of the girls there :P
In jfk now, flight leaves at 8 am. 24 Hours of flying, yikes.
I'll be posting here as the flight goes by, and putting up some nice pictures in the gallery.
Keep in touch, all 2 readers!
Posted in Travel | Tags thailand, travel | no comments
Posted by Shady
Fri, 16 Feb 2007 15:15:06 GMT
I've only been using Quicksilver for a few days now, and I already can't imagine not being able to use it. Access to every remote corner of your mac with a few key strokes. Awesome.
Posted in OSX | no comments
Posted by Shady
Mon, 29 Jan 2007 15:30:00 GMT
Previously, we installed postgresql on our OS X computers. Now lets do a little bit of house keeping and clean up to make it more convenient for general use.
Read more...
Posted in OSX, Database | Tags Postgres | no comments
Posted by Shady
Thu, 25 Jan 2007 05:00:00 GMT
Yesterday I rambled on about the benefits of RDBMS and spatial data. Today, we'll actually take the first step towards getting all that fun stuff working. Setting up Postgres is not really a difficult task, especially if you have ever built any unix software before. Let's get started.
Read more...
Posted in OSX, Database | Tags PostgreSQL | no comments
Posted by Shady
Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:07:00 GMT
MySQL is nice enough for your average web application. Even larger applications can be run on it with the appropriate amount of tuning voodoo (see: wikipedia). There is even the MySQL MaxDB product (essentially SAPDB rebranded after its GPL release) available for Enterprise level MySQL, although this is not available for OS X.
Core data is also a nice solution for persistence inside a single application.
Oracle can also be run on OS X, provided you enjoy being turned upside down and shaken over a large funnel until all your money comes out. Not that this pertains specifically to Oracle on OS X, it's really more of an Oracle feature in general.
Each of these database server options are available for OS X. And they all have their various uses and proponents. So why am I here talking about Postgres? Well,
- It's Free (speech, and beer).
- It's enterprise ready (I seem to recall the .org primary name servers run on postgres)
- PostGIS
Read more...
Posted in OSX, GIS | Tags GIS | 1 comment
Posted by Shady
Thu, 14 Sep 2006 23:02:11 GMT
Got a letter from a good buddy of mine, a US Marine in Iraq. Good stuff. At least I know he's still alive.
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