Pattaya

A beach town notorious for ping pong shows, strip clubs and old Western men picking up young, beautiful Thai girls, Pattaya is a lewd, crazy, uncompromising kind of place. I've been going there since I was six so have an odd attachment to the place, which most other travellers don't seem to understand.

The pictures are of a plane sticking out of Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, the view from the Bangkok bus, a strip of seedy bars, and a collection of dancing troupe outfits (most likely for the large contingency of ladyboys that reside in this area of Thailand) at the local market.

Bangkok

One of my favourite things about Bangkok is how colourful it is. From vibrantly hued cocktails to the nighttime city lights to the magenta pink of the official taxi cabs to the sun drenched ongoing construction work, this city is heady with vivacity and excitement. I loved every minute of being there.

South Thailand Snaps

Canoeing in a lagoon, a cavernous beach, a boat on the sea, contrasting colours of water and rocks, and a crab camouflaged against a rocky crag.

I love how sun-drenched Thailand is.

Holidayz

Sorry for the radio silence. Christmas in Korea has been hectic and now I'm in Thailand. I'll be detouring from my normal blogging activities into posting some trip photography on the go. Hope you enjoy, and bye bye for now from sunny South East Asia!

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite novels.  None of the four screen adaptations have done it justice, but with Baz Lurhmann (Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet) at the helm of the Christmas 2012 version, I'm waiting with baited breath.

I can't help but feel doubtful at the casting of Carey Mulligan as Daisy though.  Daisy Buchanan is meant to be flighty, irresponsible, selfish and devastatingly beautiful.  Mulligan tends to play staid, plain and down-to-earth characters, so I just can't envision her in this role.

Although it would be difficult to find someone with the quality of a starlet like Mia Farrow.

Images: Grazia Daily, Stellar Magazine

At the K-pop Concert

I've been fully initiated into the world of K-pop, as of last week.  I went to the YG Family Concert, which is the cuddly name huge K-pop company YG Entertainment termed the show.  As one of the biggest record labels in Korea, they try to market themselves as a family business, but are really a K-pop factory; a production line churning out  bands in an industrially novel way that can be described as the human version of what Ford Motors was doing in the 1920's.

YG Entertainment are responsible for some of the best K-Pop acts in Korea.  They have Big Bang, 2NE1 and GD and T.O.P on their books, the supreme of Korean music (in my opinion).

The concert was a mash-up of artists collaborating on different projects.  I missed this cover by Big Bang (fave boyband) of a 2NE1 (fave girlband) song, but caught up with this grainy version on YouTube the next day.

Images from my friend Poppie's blog

Customellow Flea Market

When I'm not drinking my life away, I manage to make it to some cool daytime events.  Today I went to the Customellow and Fifty Seoul flea market in Hongdae, which is the arty University district of South Korea's capital.

Customellow have been running this market for a couple of months now, in association with bloggers and online clothing companies in Korea.  There was way more choice of male clothing but I still managed to pick up a cute top (above) for 5000 won (less than £3), so it wasn't a wasted journey.  

There were also some bands playing throughout the day but we didn't stick around for those because the shop was uncomfortably rammed.  Hongdae hipsters clearly like their flea markets.