Nepal photos and video from a few months ago

Went to Nepal over New Years this year and it was amazing - probably my favorite country in Asia that I've visited. You can't beat the mountains, temples, people and all around vibe. Extremely chill place.

This devotion to Krishna can give you a taste of the atmosphere (btw, with this video, I officially turn this blog into a vlog!):



(Open your browser window wide to see photos in full)

Impressions of Nepal



















This was my favorite temple out of them all - Changu Narayan - where the above video was taken. It also happens to be the oldest temple in the Kathmandu valley, built in the 4th century. Yeah.













Loved seeing this guy getting a shave on the side of the main highway, which is a common thing in the region apparently.



Then this went down on the way to the airport, about two kilometers away.



A much cooler longer version of this exact scenario can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6llirxRJf4&NR=1

Stroll through Red Hook

When I was back in NY a couple of weeks ago, I checked out Red Hook, Brooklyn as I've been hearing more and more about how it's developing a cool little art scene. So my friend Gabe and I took a long walk to Red Hook from Bklyn Heights on a really beautiful crisp spring day.

When I was a kid, it was a no mans land, and we used to make jokes about people who lived there being from another planet. No subways go near there and it became a little hard to get to after the BQE and Brooklyn Battery Tunnel were both built in the mid-20th century, essentially slicing Red Hook off from the rest of the borough.

Its heyday ended decades ago when New York was still a major port city, but it's been having a resurgence now, both industrially and residentially, and it's a cool old school 'hood.

The summer before I came out to Bangkok from Brooklyn four years ago, I used to go swimming on the weekends in the Olympic size public pool in Red Hook. Afterwards I'd buy a sliced mango on a stick sprinkled with paprika from Mexican vendors on my way out. Very yummy.

Anyway, here were some impressions from this afternoon jaunt.

Moon over Brooklyn


Read everything here


Remnants of Red Hook's industrial past




Overlooking the Erie Basin


Here's an old laid-up trolley with Lady Liberty (and an airplane) in the background.



Another view of the super cool old trolleys with this fantastic Civil War era warehouse in the background.



The old building is now the home of Fairway Brooklyn, which I'll go ahead and say is the best supermarket in New York. The entrance to Fairway is on the other side of the building, although they run a great cafe on this side, right beyond the trolleys.



It was right around Easter, but there's something a little creepy about this.


Caught some cool street art around the hood.







I wasn't exactly sure why Thailand was fully represented on what seemed to be a steam exhaust pipe cover, but I would guess that Thais would find it funny to know that their country is getting this unique kind of promotion in NY!

NY flight

Just got back from NY a few days ago. Beautiful spring weather... not a bad time to go since I didn't really need to be here in Thailand during the riots.

A few images to remind me of my flight into town. These were taken in the Museum of Natural History and Brooklyn Heights:

Burmese John Belushi

This was not staged! At Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon. Couldn't believe this when I saw it and I was lucky that I had my camera out.

love this story

from AFP:

Thai 'Spider-Man' to the rescue

Firefighter Somchai Yoosabai embraces the boy
The child was persuaded off the ledge by his favourite superhero

An unusual disguise has helped a Bangkok fireman rescue an eight-year-old boy who had climbed on to a third-floor window ledge, Thai police say.

The firefighter dressed up as the comic book superhero Spider-Man in order to coax the boy, who is autistic, from his dangerous perch.

Police said teachers had alerted the fire station after the boy began crying and climbed out of a classroom window.

It was reportedly his first day at the special needs school.

Efforts by the teachers to convince the pupil back inside had failed.

But a remark by his mother about his passion for comic superheroes prompted fireman Somchai Yoosabai to rush back to the station, where he kept a Spider-Man costume in his locker.

The sight of Mr Yoosabai dressed as Spider-Man and holding a glass of juice for him, brought a big smile to the boy's face, and he promptly threw himself into the arms of his "superhero", police said.

Mr Yoosabai normally uses the costume to liven up fire drills in schools.

Ignorance is (was) bliss when it comes to the financial meltdown

My dad didn't allow me to spend my Bar Mitzvah cash many moons ago when I turned 13. I was annoyed at the time, but the annoyance turned to smugness as the years went by and the money snowballed during the high flying 90s and through the rough and tumble 2000s, a time when the markets still were definitely going up.

I have no need to use this money at this point in my life, thankfully, so I chose not to view where my funds were at since the financial meltdown started. I knew I lost money in my investments, of course, and I figured it was bad. But I just took my first peek in six months at my UBS statement, though, and I'm in serious disbelief.

This is UN-BEE-LEEV-A-BULL!!!!!!! (Emphasis on the BULL.)

Seems in retrospect, it would have been better if I had gotten that super cool 1985 edition Fisher double tape deck stereo with remote control with that Bar Mitzvah bonanza (well, I did end up getting it as a Hanukkah present a year or two later).

So I officially hate the financial market world. (Although ironically enough, I just started doing freelance work for Forbes.)

And the reds...

Here are photos of the red protester "team" in Thailand. They don't take over airports, but their peeps are about to be voted out of the majority coalition in the government, which means they will lose the PM spot.

So you can expect some possible future shenanigans from them and there was a massive, but peaceful, gathering at the National Stadium in Bangkok yesterday. And I saw the red leader, Veera Musikapong, speak last week at the Foreign Correspondent's Club. He was very articulate and funny and made it clear that he wanted to protest within the laws. Of course he is a politician, though, and cannot control everyone in his minions. Of course, it sounds like he's posturing, but the reds have been pretty much keeping things cool at their rallies.

Veera's unflagging support of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra is questionable, considering how divisive Thaksin is. Veera has a long history in Thai politics, though, and it'll be interesting to see how big he gets this time around.

The photos below were taken about two weeks ago, right when the airport siege was about to end and a big crowd came to Bangkok City Hall to counter-protest the inaction of the military

So I present to you, the red posse!




These participants look intense, but there was really no serious hostility that I normally detect around the yellows.


This guy is feeling the red.


Gotta get your red souvenirs, like clapping red feet.


And, of course, your red shirts (I was wearing a white and green shirt, for the record).


Thumbs up, and an unusually light haired Thai woman


Sheepish protester hiding behind her foot poster (pointing or showing your feet to someone is a total insult here). And you don't want to know what that says in Thai about the PAD (yellow) leaders. As a Thai might say, "OOOOOOooh weeeee!"


Uhhhh, is she at the wrong rally? The national misspellers convention, that is, what did you think I meant?


Doing yoga while holding protest signs. Gotta multi-task at protests these days.


Protesters on the scene with the king's image in the background at exactly 17:06:15


Monks representin'


And dried cuttlefish seemed to be the snack of choice on sale at the red rally. I would say more so than the yellow rally, which was more about satay sticks.


All told, it was an interesting scene, and while I'm sort of poking a bit of fun at it, people have died in this struggle and a lot of people have been hurt physically and financially.

I have no idea how it will shake out. Right now it's looking like the Democrats (the Thai Dems of course, Obama doesn't run things over here) may be able to overcome Thaksin's ex-posse in government. They've been running things since 2001, except in 2006-7 when military installed government was in control. But the Democratic Party has been kind of inept here, kind of how the Democrats used to be in the U.S., in that they just haven't been able to capture the minds of the segments of society they need to in order to pull off a majority. The Thaksin peeps, when they were in power, took care of themselves, as well as the poor, who had been ignored under the Dems when they were in power last.

Oh, by the way, I'm going to Nepal for New Years...

Portraits of protesters

Well, I guess I'm not bad ass (or crazy) enough to head down to the airport, which is making me wonder what kind of reporter I am, but I did go to the local park to check out a rally from the government hatin' yellows (A.K.A. the PAD).

There have been gunshots and grenades going off in this park (read my last blog wrote yesterday below this one), so it is a little hard core. Last night there were serious blasts, too. In the last hour I've heard three noises that definitely sounded like gunshots.

This is what I saw today:

Intense looks



Defaced poster of government official


Couple purposely stepping on poster - doesn't quite fit with the image of a country that prides itself on its kindness


Guy stepping on another poster of government official


Protesters gotta eat too, and these protests feature free food. A friend who was stuck at the airport (and is still stuck here) said there was ice cream, noodles and even haircuts being given out for free there




Also, I meant to post these a month ago when I went to check the protesters at the Government House, so these aren't totally fresh. They were taken in the innocent days of the protests a month ago, when the PAD only had control of the Government House, which is totally a crazy thing on its own.

Inside the Government House compound - formerly where the Prime Minister worked


On Rachadamnoen Avenue


The PAD's enemy - former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, and his now ex-wife, Pojaman


Selling souvenirs at the protests


Tired protesters


Two days of blogging in a row from me. So you know that things must be serious!