Chinatown's Miss Guava

There was this cute girl selling guava at Bangkok's Chinatown with her mom. We were all stunned by her looks and decided that we would buy guavas from her before we left Chinatown.

When we walked back to the same place we realized that only her mom was left and she was nowhere to be seen. Not giving up we decided to buy some stuff at the supermarket before visiting the store again.

While we approached the store, Hanquan was exclaiming that she was there. I could see her touching up on her make-up while we walked towards her. Kok Wai enquired about the price and we bought about 3 kg of guavas for 200 baht. In return we managed to take some photos with her.

1st photo: We are not prepared yet.

2nd photo: Slightly better, but my face is too bright.

3rd Photo: Why the mom is inside?!?

In the end we didn't finish the guavas we bought. In addition, I also saw that guavas were being sold at 45 baht per kg in a supermarket. Well the consolation was that the cashier at the supermarket was nowhere as cute as our Chinatown's Miss Guava.

Bangkok Trip

I spent the last week in Bangkok. It was an interesting place, quite different from Singapore. I just hang around in the shopping areas and didn't venture much outside the touristy places. Bangkok was really filled with Singaporean tourists. I met FTB og mate Bryant at MBK and Hanquan's JC classmate stayed at the same hotel as us.

Samran Place, the hotel we stayed in, was not bad. My room was rather clean and it was a few minutes walk to a BTS station. It was not really far from the shopping areas like MBK or Pratunam but walking in Bangkok's heat wasn't enjoyable. The traffic in Bangkok was legendary and at most times the roads were jammed with cars, motorcycles and tuks tuks. Despite this, Thai drivers rarely use their horns, probably reflecting Thailand's national psyche. Mai pen rai or nevermind.

One observation I've made during this trip was that Thais cannot be easily sterotyped. There are dark-skined people with Malay features and there are also fair-skinned Chinese-looking Thais with most people belonging to the region between the two groups.

We managed to learn some basic Thai words during our trip and most Thais are rather happy to assist us in learning their language. I can count from one to thousand and sawadee krup and kap kroon krup but nothing much beyond these. It would be interesting to be able to understand what the Thais were talking about (such as how stupid these suckers are).

I would probably visit Bangkok again but it is unlikely to be with this group of friends. Nothing against them but I'm simply uninterested in Thai massages and eating A&W.

Quality of the Champion

Last night I was watching the EPL match between Chelsea and Arsenal. Although I'm not a supporter of neither team, I got to watch this fixture as it will definitely be full of passion, emotion and high drama.

Usually I will be rooting for Arsenal because their football is stylish and attacking. However, Chelsea was 9 pts behind Man Utd in the title race and it was important that they did not slip too much behind. I'm not a fan of Mourinho but I prefer another title to the Portuguese whiner compared to another one for the prawn sandwich bridgade. I still haven't decided which team to root for when the match kicked off.

Arsenal's defence looked super makeshift to me. Both Toure and Gallas were absent and the two Swiss centrebacks Senderos and Djourou looked less than steady. Especially Senderos who did a Ho Teck imitation in the 1st half. Drogba was in his dominant physical self as usual so both of them were in for a long afternoon.

The first half produced no goals but it was never short of action. Ashley Cole was booed by the away fans whenever he touched the ball. Lampard hit the post but Arsenal wasn't really uncomfortable.

Half way into the 2nd half Drogba suspisciously fell down in the box again. Lehmann, forever the instigator, gave Drogba a push. Drogba dropped down theatrically but immediately sprang up and bumped Lehmann down. Two grown men reduced to kids. Yellow cards for being childish. That was absolutely hilarious.

Mourinho introduced 2 wingers to add width to the team and Robben's speed immediately caused problems to Arsenal's rearguard. Shevchenko didn't look threatening all day and his exit was no coincidence to Chelsea's improvement in play. Gilberto Silva who was standing in as the Arsenal captain put in a good match to stop the rampaging Chelsea attackers.

However it was Arsenal who took the shock lead. It was neat passings between Arsenal players as usual and Hleb supplied the cross for Flamini to stab home. The shot was neither powerful nor too angled but hilarious Hilario managed to palm the ball into the net. Mourinho won't be too pleased with that.

Chelsea hasn't lost at home in the Premiership for more than 2 years and the record was in real danger. However Chelsea responded like they did against Man U 2 weeks ago. Essien scored a wonderful goal from edge more than 30 yards out although the buildup to the goal was controversial. Wenger would whine but he would have no complaints about the draw after seeing first Essien hitting the bar and then Lampard hitting the post (again).

It was really a pulsating last 20 minutes which had everything in it. This is probably the reason why EPL is the most exciting league in the world. Maybe not in terms of title race but in terms of game play neither Serie A or La Liga came close. An absolutely fantastic game of football was on show last night.

Chelsea showed the world why they were Champions for the last 2 years. Their play may not be the prettiest but when the chips are down for them they will definitely dig in and chase the game. We must give credit to them for their team spirit and resilience. Man Utd had overcame a bigger margin in the past but Chelsea will have to show the quality of a real champion to make up the 8 points deficit.