1.) Olympic Coverage: Bandminton, Synchronized diving, table tennis, weightlifting, and soccer. These are the sports Thais care about. Not gymnastics, not swimming, not even basketball and Team USA. I realize that perhaps focusing on Team USA's basketball prowess may be a bit Amero-centric, but it may be the best team to have ever stepped foot on the parquet. That, compared to watching a couple of portly Chinese men slap ping pong balls back and forth, albeit incredibly well, seems far and away more interesting.
There is one channel in all of Thailand that covers the Olympics, and it makes us envious of all those who enjoy the work of NBC. We took for granted the helpful tables and charts explaining scoring and ranking information. We have now seen hours of men and women weight lifting and we are no closer to deciphering what constitutes winning and losing. Here, coverage breaks at random for events such as a two hour ceremony to celebrate the birthday of the Queen, a fascinating look at golden artifacts in an obscure museum, or just local news and weather. One advantage the Thais do have over U.S. coverage, however, is a catchy jingle every few minutes that involves children singing "Beijing, Beijing, ohhh Beijing." We wish we could tape record it.
2.) Food: Neither Tom nor I have ever eaten so much Carbonara or pizza in our lives. Yes, the Thai food is good-- there is pad thai and green curry to be found on every street, but the Italian food is excellent. Apparently there are a number of Italian ex-pats living all over Thailand who decided to come and open restaurants. Today we ate lunch and dinner at the same little place down a back alley recommended to us by a British ex-pat working at a local travel agency. The decor is classic--a few small tables and plastic chairs on a patio situated around a large Banyan tree, and the food is outrageously delicious, all for about $12 for our entire bill.
3.) Internet: American naysayers are quick to note that telecommunications in the United States are years behind that of our Asian counterparts. American internet connections are, they say, much slower than in Asia. Not true; at least not in Thailand's capital city. The internet connections here are painfully slow; so slow that we spend thirty minutes online merely to upload ten of the pictures we've taken around the city. We're looking forward to finding this "telecommunications gap" in Hong Kong because maybe then we can actually find an adequate connection.
4.) Khao San Road: In the middle of Bangkok lies a place that is an extraordinary mixture of Mardi Gras and Adams Morgan. One strip of road offers anything and everything, including: fried grasshoppers and beetles, "ladyboys" , bars, restaurants, $1 pad thai, women dressed in sequins and costumes (supposedly traditional garb) selling oddities, fake IDs and diplomas made on the spot, a stall that will upload any movie or song to your iPod for you for a pittance, and most distressingly, a host of young men plopping their tongues and lips, offering to take us to a 'ping pong show.' (We don't know what this is and we never want to find out.)
5.) James Blunt: James Blunt appears to be the most popular person in all of Thailand, far surpassing the highly revered King and Queen, international sports stars, and A-list celebrities. For reasons that neither Tom nor I can begin to understand, he can be heard crooning "You're beautiful, it's true!" from nearly every bar and food stall in all of Thailand, from the islands of the south to the metropolis of Bangkok.
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