Ok, it’s really not that hard to grock.

So I just got one of those new iPhone things that seem to be all the rage. It really is the most amazing phone that I’ve ever used, really just an Apple computer that fits in your pocket. There are some interesting language learning tools for it that I have been playing with (look for a future post) and there is also this digital camera deal. I had pretty much sworn off using digital cameras as I got annoyed with the look of the photos, something about them just didn’t look as nice as film. I still feel that way, but with this one I’ve found that I like how the immediacy of it all allows me to experiment with composition and how it allows me to document strange things around me.

I shot the following two images on my way home, the second one just shows how horrible traffic can be after the rain … the first one shows the same thing, but it also gets at the unique rules of the road in BKK. On the lower-right side of the image, there is a motorcycle cutting through traffic going the wrong way … something that is pretty normal here. Right-of-way in BKK is generally determined by who is bigger and also who is alive. Cars give way to buses, motorcycles give way to cars, strange cart things gave way to motorcycles and people have to watch out for everything. Sidewalks are generally safe, but motorcycles often use the sidewalk as a shortcut when traffic is bad. Crosswalks and red lights are an indicator that things might be safe to cross, but there’s no guarantee … things here give way to the who-is-alive rule, if a car runs a red light, runs you over and keeps going, it doesn’t really matter if she ran the red light or not.

It is also really common for motorcycles to weave through traffic, often going the wrong way down the street … which explains why it is somewhat common for people to open car doors into bikes and to just see bad motorcycle accidents in general.

The strange with it all is that there is virtually no honking at all. In rare cases where a motorist needs to let you know something, he might honk but there is virtually none of the bored or vindictive honking that happens in USA (or the non-stop honking of India). It’s almost as it Thailand’s culture of manners and not intruding into people’s space tells them not to honk, but to feel free to them run red lights, cut people off and have an occasional hit-and-run … don’t try to make sense of it.

It’s almost always a zillion degrees in Bangkok, but for some reason it was rather mild when I finished work at 5pm today. Usually I take the skytrain 2 stops, but decided to walk the 30 min or so today instead. Lucked out and saw this sunset, I’m guessing it’s the pollution that makes it look so pretty … but ahh well.

This one I shot a while ago over my university as a storm was coming in.

I hope that someone will laugh at my pun when i say that I’ve discovered Siamese cockroaches in Bangkok. Seriously … attached at the tail.

I’ve been meaning to post some information about my university for a while as it is a very unique place, in that it draws people from all over the country together to learn in one place. More so than other universities, Ramkamheang, creates a broad cross-section of the country, drawing people from very different socioeconomic backgrounds and age-groups. The cost per credit hour is 25 Bhat, which means that a normal 3-credit full semester course, runs 75 Bhat (a little over $2USD). I don’t know the details of how things are funded, but I am guessing that there is significant government funding going into the place. Out of approximately 600,000 students, there are around 10 of us foreigners … I’m the only white person, there rest are Japanese, Chinese, Lao, Cambodian and Burmese. (There is an international college that is part of the university which has more people from the Occident due to its instruction being in English, but that is a separate entity).

The grade is made of of a single final exam and attendance to classes is not required. Many students go part time while working, sometimes coming to classes but other times trying to read the text books at home. Students who graduate are thought to be very hard-working and self-motivated, as the lack of an attendance requirement or mid-term exams allows for lazy students to slip through the cracks.

The majority of the classes happen at two campuses in Bangkok, and there are also close to 30 satellite locations around the country which are setup for distance learning. One thing I find so visually interesting is that there is often different technologies all layered on top of each other. There are many large lecture halls used for exams and freshman lecture classes, each one seats about 500+ students and is outfitted with giant ceiling fans (no air-conditioning) and large TVs that hang from the ceiling. The professor stands up at the front to teach, his face and lecture notes are displayed on the TVs and then there is a full editing room in the corner where the lecture is edited and broadcast out on the internet and via satellite for students who can’t make it in.

One you get into your major courses, the class size drops down considerably. My Spanish class is in a room like this with 15 students and my Sanskrit class is in an even smaller room with 4 students.

There is a lot of construction going on and many buildings are slated to be torn down and rebuild over the next few years.

There school was built 37 years ago and there are some really strange things that remain, including this Austin Powers-esque conference-room.

There is a full TV and radio production facility, where the university produces content for its own television station,

and where lectures are broadcast live to satellite campuses. I haven’t been down to any of the satellite campuses yet, but plan to eventually. From what I understand, they have rooms full of TV monitors where students watch a lecture and also microphones which the students can use to ask the professor questions.

The full photo survey that I’ve been doing can be seen here.

sometimes i feel like it takes all the energy that i can muster just to drag myself out of my apt when i don’t have to go to work or school. i love being in a city, but there are days when it all seems like way too much stimulation. when i first moved here, the bars still permitted smoking which meant that about the only time i would ever go out was when i had someone visiting from out of town.

when the smoking ban when into effect at the start of this year, i think i probably went out about three weeks in a row and then got bored of it and took another big break. these days it takes a really special mood or some very good reason to get me out, and when frankie knuckles was set to perform at club culture i figured that was good enough of an excuse.

the music was really good, but for some reason the 11 billion thai gossip and fashion magazines were out in full force. the was probably one photographer for every 10 people, each one trying to get interesting shots for their publication. these two shots of me ran in cheeze magazine (for people not familiar with the thai press, this one has about 80% fewer words than intellectual paragon from usa called InTouch). you can probably tell by the second shot that i look pretty annoyed at the paparatzi. i scanned the full pages in case you want to see what else they were shooting that night, click the images to view full size.

bush is coming to town, which means it’s time for the thai government to do a quick clean up … make things boring for a week. everything always goes back to normal once he is gone tho. it’s become clear tho that bush’s problems don’t stem from his general lack of competence or the fact that he’s dumb, apparently thai farmers have put a curse on him.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JG31Ae01.html

Pirated DVDs, fake Swiss watches and imitation designer garments are fast disappearing from Patpong, a red-light strip in the Thai capital popular with tourists, bargain-hunters and others. The clean-up comes ahead of US President George W Bush’s two-day visit next week to Thailand as part of his final Asian tour as chief executive.

The US has pushed for stronger IPR protection in the proposed FTA than is currently mandated by member states to the World Trade Organization, which allows for generic drug production under certain circumstances through a compulsory licensing arrangement. US officials have taken issue with that clause and were behind the 2006 removal of a World Health Organization country representative to Thailand who argued against the FTA.

Local interest groups, particularly the farmers who have suffered from previous free trade deals, doubt those scientific assessments. They demonstrated their displeasure with US trade policies the last time Bush visited Thailand in 2003, placing a curse on him by dropping his photograph inside a pot and tossing it into the northern Ping River amid chants and black magic mantras. Bush can likely expect more of the same during his visit next week.