Culture and politics forum

Great topic!

Some of the lady boys have been pretty strange. A sign for car rental in Chang Mai that says 'Bomb Car Rent' was a strange sight. Half the falang i have met have been pretty strange too!

1) The "Wooden Car" at Lazy Days on Koh Mak, built by Naan, Thai hippy and all-round good guy extraordinaire. Built during one of the rainy seasons when he had not much else to do. The thing had coconut shell side view mirrors and headlamps, and couldn't do over 15 km/hr. Then seeing the headlights bouncing around madly in the coconut grove, in the dark, as a very drunk Naan banged it into tree after tree. It's a wonder he wasn't killed by falling coconuts.

2) The Reggae Bar in Chewang in 1992. Is this place still open and the same? There were pool tables on platforms up in the branches of that gigantic tree!

3) Coming back to my Bangkok guest house at sunrise just in time to see a flaming and smoking, fuzzy, cheetah-spot patterned shoe flying across my guest house eating area, aimed directly at the very hungover head of one of the guests. It was torched and thrown by a very unhappy lady-boy who came downstairs to find that one of his (?) shoes was missing and he blamed his "customer" who was almost dead from embarrassment as the lady-boy had woken up every other guest and worker with his shrieking. Everyone came out to see what was going on. I was told several years later by Mama, the lady who ran the guest house, that she took the shoe that morning on her way to the temple. She didn't like that kind of stuff going on in her guest house.

Can understand her not wanting to ruin the shoes but why leave the socks on?

I'd have to say that the strangest thing I've seen was in Medan, Indonesia. We heard this lovely music being played and saw a large crowd watching whoever was playing. When we got up closer, we saw that the poor man was afflicted with the 'elephant man' disease. Honestly, he looked as bad, if not worse than the actual elephant man. The man he was with (obviously his 'manager') said that he had been thrown out of his family for looking that way and he had to make a living on the streets playing his music. I felt so sorry for him. It was just like an old fashioned freak show.

Scotty
There's a guy who comes into Muk sometimes (I've seen him at the night market and the Indochina market) who has very short legs, a huge head, and moves around on a little platform on wheels. His life is almost as screwed up as it can be, but he still manages a big smile and a good attitude. He actually speaks English too. I talk with him whenever I see him and always throw some money his way, but I feel for him too (although I don't show it - who wants to be pitied?). Every time I see him I realize how lucky I am.

As we crested the small hill what had sounded like noise took on the distinct sound of some sort of loud ethnic music. There was much yelling and screaming as if from many people yet the music never stopped. The village gate had none of the crossed bamboo mats indicating that the village was closed to outsiders, yet the entire village seemed in the midst of some sort of crazy ritual or something. The yelling and screaming would switch from anger to pleading and then many shouts and other voices raised in what sounded like argument. And whoever was beating on the drum never stopped, and the chanting.

We were 40km from the road, my guide, and my local guide were of a different ethnicity, none of the three of us were intimately familiar with the culture of the people of this village or could even speak the language. The houses at the outside of the village were unusually deserted as every living soul seemed caught up in whatever human sacrifice was taking place in the center.

Every person was in the thrall of an intense game of spinning tops and people would cheer and wail as the various contestant's tops would spin out of control or come closest to the mark. The battery powered loud speakers were playing the traditional music at volume. The Naiban separated himself from the crowd and welcomed us with a big smile.

Me and a friend were cycling on rural road during our Sulawesi Cyle tour and heard the strangest sound in our life. As there were literally no trafic around and we were on bicylce, the sound came out distictively from afar. It sounds like something is being hit. Chaterring sound, by the thousands. Rocks? Woods?As we get closer, the sound gets louder and buzier, our curiosity grows and we cycle on to see what's its all about.

What we saw astoudned us. Large rounded rocks presumably from the river are being hit by sledgehammers to smaller peaces. Strong men giving hard blows splitting them. These pieces are then broken up to various other sizes by other men, women and children. Each has a different size hammer for the various size rocks need. Its a quarry, and no machine was used. Its all Human labor. Men women and child. It was a heart breaking sight. We cycled off.

AA

Sitting at a bia hoi on Bui Vien St and a van load of police turned up. They all got out and rushed into the alley. A short time later they returned with about 6 black guys and roughly loaded into the van. And by roughly, I mean pushed, shoved and randomly beaten with batons. This went on for about 3 more van loads.

At the same bia hoi a few months earlier, a man was lying on the ground across the road. I noticed and asked someone what he was doing. I got the reply "he's dead". I didnt believe him. I thought it was more likely he was passed out from drunkenness and went back to my beer. A crowd soon gathered and the consensus was that he really was dead. Ambulance took ages to arrive.

Last week - another monkey. This one riding on the back of a motorcycle looking for all the world like a human. Hanging on, looking around... enjoying the ride. Hillarious.

One of the strangest things I ever saw was this fish.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8675349@N06/3449883752/in/set-72157600304257236/