We all scream for ice cream?

Dear Readers,

When you live in Bangkok, traffic is a sign of normalcy. All last week, I had the most enjoyable time driving on the roads, hardly any cars on the roads (because who would risk driving out, besides yours truly?), really fabulous driving.

Today, life is back to normal, a busy friday, with friday traffic.  I took Grego to lunch and couldn’t help myself to a McDonald’s softee-ice cream with the chocolate dip. (Personally, I prefer it to Dairy Queen’s because the chocolate coating is much thicker) And I was walking around MBK with this huge icecream cone, happy like a chubby bu bby baby.

That’s how I felt like. A happy chubby bubby baby. And lots of people were giving me quick glances, I’m sure they were all craving for ice cream too. hee hee!

Anyhoo, thank goodness Songkran holiday is over. Monday is a working day and I am definitely welcoming it.

You scream, I scream, We all scream for ice cream? Satisfy your ice cream craving today!
Go ahead and spoil yourself, you deserve it. … or at least…that’s how I rationalise my guilty pleasures.

Chubby and bubby,
Stacy

Bangkok’s 2009 Early Tragedy – Santika’s Inferno

Dear Readers,

I am pissed.

I am pissed at the whole situation, and pissed because Jamie lost her friend Win in the Santika tragedy.

Imagine this, December 31st 2008, a Goodbye Santika party, with performance from Joey-Boy and a band called Burn.

Party goers were handed sparklers to celebrate the new year. Santika was a chic happening club, a club where tourist went,  and higher-than-normal folk – society people partied. Outside the club, you could see a line of expensive cars – ferraris, minis, bmws, and mercs. I went there once with Neha, and have to say, I liked it. Yes it was the typical Thai style dance club – with tables on the dancefloor, but there was a little dance floor room near the stage (from what I remember) so any club with a dance floor gets a two thumb approval from me.

But what we really overlook when we do go clubbing, are fire exits, the presence of sprinklers, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, emergency lights…I guess we either assume that nothing bad would happen to us – or – a club would obviously have all these safety measures because they have a club liscence. – right?

That law of logic basically goes to shit in Thailand. That whole list? fire exits…sprinklers..fire extinguishers…- not adequate.

Santika decorated their stage with normal curtains – not fire retardant ones. Fire extinguishers? – One.

Sprinklers? – none that I know of. Fire exits? – 3 but 2 back exits were only known to the staff – not even the fire fighters knew about it.

So what really happened that night? Its a piece by piece put together, but the rough idea was that about around 12:20-35ish the band BURN celebrated the new year by using FIREWORKS (not stage fireworks) on stage, and immediately the ceiling (that was made of soundproof material) caught on fire. Some revellers thought it was even part of the show, but when the ceiling started to fall on them (not a whole chunk at first, more like ashes) a panic broke out. Somehow, people on the 2nd floor realised the fire before people on the ground floor, and everyone was rushing to the main exit, so that some deaths were caused by the stampede.

I read here and there, and one man said he jump kicked the glass windows on the ground floor, and only made a small hole and felt so helpless didn’t know how to get out. Worse – on the 2nd floor the windows had grills.

The fire was further amplified because of the bottles of alcohol on the main dance floor (remember, Thai clubs have bar tables on the dance floor, thats how Thais party, head bobbing and minimal booty shaking around their bar table.) so there were mini explosions from the alcohol bottles.

1,000 people, stampeding out of the 3 storey building, mainly using the 2 metre wide exit.

It took the fire fighters 2 hours to bring the blaze under control. Total – 64 people dead, 240+ injured.

Of the 64, there were 17 bodies that were burnt beyond recognition – charred. When they couldn’t locate Jamie’s friend Win, by the 2nd day, I had a strong gut feeling that it was bad news. His mother had to fly in from Myanmar for DNA testing and they found him, his girlfriend Laika and his friend Mark all near the back exits.

After googling alot about the incident, my mother found a post on thaivisa.com, someone who similarly was missing 4 friends. Then on a facebook group, I saw the same post, but the photo that was shown to look for the missing people did not include Win, so I didn’t think it was him.

Turns out, after giving Jamie the link, she pointed out that the people in the photo included Mark and Laika, but Win wasn’t there (maybe he was taking the photo).

So this was his story:

“We believe the girl was hit by debris from the roof, and her bf tried to help, but either passed out, or he and my bro managed to get her to the rear exit before passing out. Unfortunately, when the rescue teams came, they only went in from the front… As for the last friend, apparently he had already managed to get to safety, but didn’t see any of us, so went back in… He was found in the vicinity of the entrance, only a few meters from the 3…”

He was 26, a MBA student at ABAC, and Jamie’s friend/mentor (in the Debate club) for the past 4 years. He was also Dianna’s close friend, so its devastating for the both of them. I didn’t know him, but I always remember Jamie raving about him, how he is such a nice guy.

And the way he died, trying to save his unconscious girlfriend, most probably being knocked out conscious from the falling ceiling, or succumbing to the clouds of smoke…and the most UPSETTING thing – seeking refuge/hope by circumventing the crowds – going to the back exit and having it overlooked by fire fighters.

I’m PISSED! Pissed at the lack of safety regulations in Thailand. Santika did not hold a club liscence – they only had a liscence to run a food stall. FOOD STALL. Bribery is how they got away with it, probably paying police/inspectors 100,000 baht a month (at least).  In total, Santika made an estimate of 60 million baht per year in revenue.

This is how Thailand works – its called systemic corruption – corruption that is more than just one bar owner and one tainted cop, its a whole SYSTEM of police, government regulators and business owners. I recently spoke to a friend who opened a pub/restaurant near her home. I asked her if she had proper liscencing, and she told me quite frankly that she doesn’t, she knows a high police official in that area, and so pays a bribe of 1,000 baht per month to the police.

1,000 baht, can you believe that?

Days like this I am very disgusted to live here, and there is a facebook group that now shares places to boycott and be aware of when clubbing. Here is a link showing the fire exits for a popular gay club called DJ STATION : Look at this crazy ladder exit.

You know, I was watching Oprah’s Best Life – the Spiritual episode, and one interviewer said he was stuck in an airplane crash -Dante’s Inferno and he saw aura lights leaving the passengers’ bodies. Some were bright some were dim, each aura had a different strength to it. I’d like to think that Jamie’s friend Win’s aura left very bright, just from the photos that I saw of him, all the posts his friends wrote about him, and stories from Jamie and Grego, I know that he was a fun loving individual, always caring and selfless – this was especially illustrated at his heroic attempt to save his girlfriend – it is a damn dirty shame that the back exit wasn’t adequate for them to be rescued.

To see his facebook dedication page, please click here

May all the victims of Santika’s inferno find peace in their afterlife, know that they have touched many lives and are deeply missed,
Stacy

News articles:

Police: Many Victims were Foreigners

Rescuers helpless as flames engulf revellers

Teenagers flock to Santika to take photos of “ghosts” (this link is a bit freaky.)

Yay I’m a Size 4

Dear Readers,

I’m a size 4! I don’t remember if I wrote about that earlier, but I don’t mind typing it again.

Yay I’m a size 4!

Though, according to asian standards, I’m still one huge mama.

I switched up my fitness plan, I lost quite alot of weight through strictly dieting, but I hit a plateau. So, I decided to go to the gym 5 times a week, and I’m sticking to this goal for at least the next 4 weeks.

I strongly believe in the 6-week test period, if you do or/persist with anything for 6 weeks, it will become a habit, anything before 6 weeks is most likely a simple fad, you lose interest and fall off course. I’m swimming twice a week, for 45 minutes each session, and 1 hour of tennis per week, then all the other days I’m doing weights.

Random Shopping tips:

For all of you who are visiting Bangkok, I just have to say one thing – CENTRAL WORLD PLAZA – Quite a few mid-designer brand names there, and if you go into their pathetically empty outlets, they have discount sections!

I bought a pair of pants from Vivienne Tam, and a very pretty halter top (to be added to my “fantasy closet”). It is seriously one of the best feelings in the world, to wear size 4 pants. And, my top is a size P!

This illustrates what my Mom always tells me, that if we lived in Canada I would be considered normal, here I’m XL (I think I downsized to L now!).

For example:

On my recent trip to the salon, my hair stylist commented that I looked great, lost weight, then he added, “You no more *hand action of a pregnant belly* *thumbs up and a supportive grin*”

Wow maybe he thought I had an abortion? or maybe I gave birth to my baby a few weeks ago?
Thai ppl do that, they say things like “Oh, you have baby!!!” and sometimes when I have no mood to say

“Oh silly, its not a baby! its my growing fatty belly!!”

I’ll just smile and reply, “Yes!! I’m 3 months along and she’s going to be a girl! yay!”

For the record, I’ve never been pregnant.

Thanks for stopping by,

Stacy

Few and far betweens

PM Samak was asked to resign because he breached the constitution, he had private employment during his term of PM.  

The cooking show, Tasting and Grumbling (what a catchy name) was the ultimate down fall of his political term as PM. Apparently, he was asked to appear on 4 episodes, and was paid 20,000 baht per episode.

*gasps* 20,000 baht!

Quite frankly, that is considered peanuts compared to what I was given a quotation to hire emcees for a talk show….I agree – taking money from a private firm is bad, very bad…but..er hmm…how about as honoraria? debatable no?

But that’s besides the point, it is quite amazing (AMAZING THAILAND!) that they can oust him based on this charge. Rather that using any of the bazillion-and-one reasons to have him removed, he was caught red handed wearing an apron and frying chillies.

Nigella Lawson, I love you, if you do get into politics, please remember to give up your Nigella empire – yes that’s right,  Nigella Express and Nigella Feasts have to get axed too.

In my opinion, finding a man who enjoys cooking is quite a feat. Few and far between.

Thank you for punishing a man who has a passion in cooking, so much so that he unknowingly sacrificed his power and position for it.

Cheers to few and far betweens.

Bangkok is Safe

Bangkok is safe. Thailand is safe.

Even though we are now under a state of emergency, life goes on as per usual, no signs of social unrest. Like I said yesterday, Thailand operates in bubbles, as long as you do not go right to the heart of the protests, then you’ll be fine.

For tourist travelling here, the only concern you should have is traffic due to strikes, but as for today (the 1st day of the strike) there is no real problem.

No bombing, no riots, no military crack downs.

I only advise not to book with Thai Airways because they are being stupid and delaying flights as a show of support to the PAD. As for the shut down of smaller international airports (Krabi and ChiangMai) if you are en route, they will most likely direct the flight to Bangkok’s International Suvarnabhumi Airport and I HOPE that the flight carrier would arrange for bus transport to your original destination.
If you are stuck in the airport when there are protests, I believe they will send you to Bangkok to catch your flight.

Living in Thailand is safe, but you need to acquire patience to handle these small nuances.

Living in political instability

For the past week, there have been protests in Bangkok led by a group called PAD – People’s  Alliance for Democracy. They should be called – People’s Anti-Democracy.

First off, I’m okay and safe, my family are okay and safe. If you are checking on me, thank you I’m fine. 🙂

As I was writing to my relatives this morning, Bangkok operates in bubbles. Here in the business district, there is no inkling of protests – except for the affect on the Thai economy and stock market. But physically, no sign of distress. Near my home? life goes on as per usual. Sunny bright days in Bangkok.

I’ve been reading alot about the political turmoil, and the reason why I am saying that the PAD is actually anti-democratic is that they need to use violence/coercion to overthrow the government, if they ever tried to request for a referendum (which…is an on going process believe it or not) the majority of Thailand – her Rural people, will vote in favour for the PPP (People’s Power Party) because their policies favour the rural folk, not to mention the sweet money the rural folk get from the PPP to vote in their favour.

PAD peaceful protest? Storming of government houses, the television station, this is far from peaceful. A few days ago I read in the Bangkok Post a few days ago, a really stupid article about the PAD requesting 100 underpants donations, because the protesters have not gone home for the past 4-5 days and they need to wear new undies (for hygenic reasons) —- Me: “…….”

The protesters are breeding filth and germs and if they lasted camped out for much longer, there can even be an epidemic spread. Oh, and for 100 baht, anyone can get a PhD certificate(in political science I believe..)granted by the PAD – to certify that within the past few days of joining the protests they have learnt sooo much that they are granted a honorary certificate from Ratchadamnoen University. 10,000 to 50,000 certificates have been purchased.

Granted, I’m not saying that Thaksin was the greatest PM ever – in fact I fully agree that he was corrupt. As for Samak (PM), I’m not sure if he’s corrupt, but he is a big mouth NATO (No Action Talk Only) or more like…a WAST (Wrong Action Stupid Talk) <–term just created.  Honestly ? which country is so blessed to have a PM/President that is heaven sent from God? There will always be lobbyist to support or to denouce the current government. In Thailand’s case, with the PAD they had alot of centralised power, and connections to ask …43 state labour unions to go on strike! of which…

• The Thai Airways Union to stir up !@&(!*&@ delaying their international flights..
• EGAT (electricity) and the Metropolitan Works Authority (water) to stop suppling utilities to Government agencies..not to mention communications..
• 80% of Bangkok buses will stop running.

Great. thats so fabulous. I am very disgusted with all these labour unions, especially Thai Airways and the Transportation. Its not about showing your support, which you are free to do, but they must understand the repercussions of their actions. If Thai Airways is planning to brand itself as a top quality service airline, and airline that cares about their customers, they are doing an extremely fab job. As for the transportation, all innocent apathetic Thais will be affected. Yes, all these unions want to pull leverage, but at whose expense?

The government did not use force against the protesters. It was the protesters themselves that clashed. Two parties  – UDD (United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship) and PAD – one pro government (UDD) and one anti government (PAD).

The protests are a breeding place for mob aggression, after several days of protests, tireness and frustration, fights broke out:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/09/02/headlines/headlines_30082253.php

Note that the protesters with the batons beating other protesters are not in police uniform – they are civilians.

The government only declared a state of emergency after the death of one protester.

I don’t see how Thailand can ever help itself out of the mess it makes. You have protesters who are 1/2 paid to be there, and 1/4 following the trend and fighting for a cause they know nothing about (because its cool. believe it or not, I know someone who knows someone who is like that), and 1/4 genuinely know what’s going on. The PAD protests and protests but they never have a proposition as to what is better.

As a fully trained adjudicator, I would fail the opposition party, as all their claims – have no substanial basis to overthrow the current government. The people are unhappy.

Everyone is unhappy. Look at the United States, run by a very special President – George W. Bush. You don’t see the Democrats on the street causing chaos and asking to overthrow the Republican party. If the leader was democratically elected then he should rightfully serve his full term, despite how shitty he is.

November 30th marks the end of the State of Emergency. Let’s see how this progresses…

Chaos day

So August 26th 2008 will go down a very chaotic day in Bangkok.

(note: starting today I’m dropping the Dear Readers, see if this style is better)

There is so much to blog about that I will just write random things that pop up into my head.

First thing is, in the morning we took another route to work because of protests. I didn’t think much of it. Bangkok is HUGE. If there are protests going on near Rachadamri (the court house) then it wouldn’t affect me in Silom, and it for SURE wouldn’t affect me where my house is.

As we were winding down our business lunch, Mr. Network (I am not going to use any real names anymore. I read some blogs in wordpress and they have  “cast lists” so interesting! I never thought it would be offensive to write about people in my blog, but just in case ppl mind, I’ll be using nicknames. I’ll leave you to deduce their actual identities.)

– as I was saying. Mr. Network, receives this phone call, and all of a sudden he is the most urgent man alive (ho gun cheung, 太紧张）the mob situation was getting more serious. He must leave at once. And knowing me, as he was getting his jacket at the back of the chair I just had to ask, is it very serious? is it dangerous?

His reply: not very safe, we don’t know. please take care of your family. *makes his exit by DASHING out of the restaurant. leaving me with my mouth agape*

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH 

Anyhoo, once I got back into the office, Ms Uh-huh told me that they closed Siam, and they broke into the national TV station NBT. And that there were 10 separate locations for protests.

Mom was out of the office near one of the protest areas, so I was so so nervous, and Mr.Celebrity was making me more nervous asking where she was, what time will she be back, and to rub salt into the wound, when I was having my afternoon meeting with Dad, Mr. Celebrity interupted with

I don’t want to worry you, but where is your Mother, the protests are getting worse, they over took the PM house and they are blocking roads

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH Protests Intensifies!

anyhoo, we still planned our day as scheduled. Dad was nice, closed the office early, and we headed to the lovely farmers Market – Seacon Square. I went to Fitness First for Body Jam and Body combat.

And… I did it again, I don’t know WHAT move I did exactly, but after the mambo track, I felt my ankle a bit wobbly. And now I’m limping. I have to master mambo with stilettos.

Note to everyone: To guarantee a more intense work out, you must 1. Stand in front of the mirror, and 2. Wear dancers clothing. Today I did the whole flash dance getup, with leggings, tank top, and off the shoulder shirt along with a sweat band. *thumbs up* now that’s style.

After class I went up to the instructor (she wasn’t very good) and asked her the name of that song, and all we saw was “Body Jam Track 34”!!! Disappointing, but after googling, and looking in my media library, I have that song!! “Cha Cha Heels Rosabel Big Room VX mix.” Yay.

I’m posting the link so you can hear it, I love the break down when its like “1…2…*music* …cha cha cha…let me put my heels on!”

After gyming (oh for Body Combat I wore my gym gloves, super intense – again having to do with the wardrobe), I went on a hunt to print business cards, tum tum chuen around the gok fa yuen. Ended up not printing. 

I met Mom at JASPAL – Chaos – JASPAL 70% discount!!! I went straight for the undergarments, because they are very pretty and relatively affordable. We saw two tourist, (Mom says they were russian) and I’ve never seen such distasteful entire lack-of-social graces/shopping etiquette EVER.

You see, during the sales period you cannot try on clothes, so most of us do the amazing neck test (where you take the pants or skirt and wrap it around your neck, if it fits, it fits. try it) These two size-2 (UK size 8)blondes were really trying on the clothes, as in stripping down their pants, trying on shorts, leggings, skirts, dresses and all the thai men were GAWKING. The lowest point was I saw her try on PANTIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (very pretty magenta silk ones)

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And she even had the audacity to lift up her dress and ask her friend how they looked, and there was this tall thai-chinese man with his jaw dropped to the FLOOR. I caught him staring! hahaha

I looked at my set, then I looked at mom, and told her, “SEE this is WHY WE WASH OUR CLOTHES BEFORE WE WEAR THEM!” She laughed and nodded.

Wahh i just had to blog about it.

So I’m home now, just watched 2 movies on TCM, and found this youtube clip of the original Cha Cha Heels version, by Eartha Kitt (gotta love Cat Woman!) it is so chaotic. A nice soundtrack to end this post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vGAa4Fdww8