Redshirt protests, awesome!

Many have asked if I'm OK here since all the protests are happening. So far yes, but it's beyond my control and I'm not going to live my life in fear and hide out for months while these guys figure shit out. I support them protesting the illegal government and if I was a Thai I'd join them. They've shut down half the city by blocking roads and camping out. I ride through their gatherings all the time: not by choice, I just don't know where they roll and I run into them. Here's a vid of a bunch of them riding by my neighborhood, they just kept coming and coming so I got bored and went to see Clash of the Titans.

This vid is my first ride through their main gathering point back on April 4th. It was early and no one died yet so things were mellow, but notice how many blocks they took over. I turned the camera off because it got boring.

This video is from April 12th, I was on my way home and got detoured as the mobs were growing, this is the time people started dying.

Lastly is a video my friend made of the more recent gatherings in the main tourist shopping area called Siam. I rode through 5 blocks of this area on April 17th but it was raining so I knew they weren't going to be violent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMWoJjbtERQ

Since I look Asian they don't stop me driving through their barricades. Guess I'll probably end up being a casualty of a bomb or something. Some Japanese photographer was killed and a bomb went off 2 miles from my place. Whatever, beats being in the Middle East and it's not a shark attack. I bet more people are killed in LA every week than they do in a year here so its no big deal. I remember some dude got shot one block away from me in South LA. I'd be more concerned living in Detroit, Atlantic City, or New Orleans than in BKK.

I'm hoping that all this protesting will reduce tourism forever. Thai people are getting greedy and lazier because jackass Westerners and tourists are paying too much giving them easy money. I don't see where the Thais get off charging 40% import duties and $5 for a crap beer at a club when the infrastructure of the city is so pitiful. There's definite discrimination here, they automatically double or triple rent and product prices just because you look Western. The cops charge me $6 a moving violation, the Thais pay a dollar. You think American politics are corrupt? Well at least some money makes it back to making America look nice: paving the roads, clean water, and educating its people. All the money the Thais take is never put back into making the country, its people, or businesses better. It all ends up in some politician's bank account while the country continues to look like a shithole. My friends tell me there was a time when you took a girl home and she would cook you breakfast and wash your dishes in the morning. Not anymore. I've paid $10 to have my tiny apartment cleaned and my microwave is still filthy. I can clean my place better than these so called professionals. In a global sense this place is like New Orleans, if it vanished it wouldn't matter. The people and business done here is not advancing society, in fact Thailand is just polluting the Earth and doing nothing to better it. Don't get me wrong its still dirt cheap and awesome to live here, I just want to keep the idiots in check by bringing them down. Yay, Revolution!!

Songkran Water Festival

April 12-15th is the old school Thai New Year's celebration. Really its just a good way to fight the humid peak of Summer so the whole country shuts down and parties by hosing people down. Everywhere you go there are people throwing water at you, but during the day its kinda refreshing. I got some lame squirt guns to fight back; next year I'm going to have to import some Super Soakers. I was riding my scooter and kids threw buckets of water at me. Good thing my visor was down as some got me flat in the face at speed. I couldn't get pics of the wetness riding, so these pics are from Soi Cowboy, the main gogo bar street.

People were getting wasted and wet, but they pretty much stop the wetness at night since people get cold. For some reason they like to smear baby powder on you too. The black guy is my buddy Karl from LA. He's trying but having a hard time getting a girlfriend, they all say "no, you have too big banana". Black man can't get a break anywhere.

Tamiya Model Show

I like my scale models so I learned of this small model show at a shopping mall in East BKK. It was a tiny show, but probably the biggest in Thailand as no one has time or money for goofy hobbies here. I was really impressed by how many great, museum quality, models there were.

Sadly its hard to get a sense of scale and detail in these pics but a good example is this 1:700 boat here. My dick is bigger than this model and I have a small dick, but this model has so many small details. I could never model the tiny wires all over this ship, I don't even know what the wires are made of as they are thinner than any wire or fishing line I've ever seen. I wanted to buy it.

The planes, motorcycles, and boats were the best but some of the cars were cool too. Almost all of the 80 iphone pics I took are models that will fit in the palm of your hand. I wish I brought a real camera as these pictures don't do the models justice. Many looked like the real thing; that's impressive.

Don Wai Floating market

Well, me and 3 scooter dudes rolled out to this place for lunch. It's about an hour West of where I live. Nothing too special, a temple (check out the giant chicken statues) and a floating market. I dig the car engined boats and the large plant islands floating down the river. Good food.

2010 Bangkok Motor Show

Last week was the big motor show for Thailand, cars and bikes. The bike section was very small, just a few manufacturers and fewer parts shops, probably 10 booths in all. Considering 75% of rides here are bikes it seemed odd they don't have much at the show.  It was just half a hall so it's like 20% the size of the Long Beach cycle show. No new bikes I was interested in either...weak.

The car sections were bigger but maybe a third the size of the LA show. One nice thing is they have lots of models dancing and doing acts to show off the new rides. I'm surprised America doesn't hype their shit up like this. They seem to love their CNG powered cars here which is cool but no hybrids yet. I learned a Mini costs more than a 3 series BMW because it is re-assembled differently. There were a few concept cars and bikes, but the highlight was the MB SLS gullwing. I'm sure that will sell for a million+ here. Well there's lots of hot models on the Picasa.