Welcome to Thailand

Last month I was fortunate enough to visit the islands of Thailand. If you've never been there, add Thailand to your bucket list because the place is amazing.

The first stop on the trip was in Bangkok. I didn't get to explore Bangkok because I was only there for a few hours as a layover. Although I didn't get to leave the airport I did enjoy walking around the airport taking pictures of all the art. Bangkok International airport has diverse styles of art all over the place. In the three hours I was there I took almost a hundred photos. The art was a mix of oil, watercolor, and acrylic paintings, and bizarre sculptures. The main hall felt more like an art gallery than airport. 

From Bangkok I flew to the island of Koh Samui. This was a longer layover than Bangkok but not long enough to explore. Koh Samui is famous for over one million Coconut trees and a giant gold statue of the Buddha. My flight arrived in the evening so most of the markets were closed, but the bars were open. I explored the local night life by bar hopping from the pier to the beach. Most of the bars were filled with tourists binge drinking and behaving as if it was their first time leaving home. After leaving a trendy spot where a British tourist vomited on the pool table, I ended up at The Board Room. 

The Board Room was a small hole in the wall bar with only 80's style decor and only one other patron. It was named the board room because the place was originally for surfers and other board riders. The walls and bar were adorned with images of surfer Kelly Slater and snowboarder Shaun White among others. I liked the vintage feel of the place and the lack of drunken tourists. As I took deep swigs of my local Chang beer I noticed a very odd image on the wall. It was a picture of Erik Estrada dressed in his CHiPs uniform calling people a homo. If you're unfamiliar with CHIPs, its an old cop show from the 80's. I was never a fan. After finishing my beer and thanking the bar maid who stayed talking on the phone the entire time I departed. 

The next morning I caught the ferry from Koh Samui to the party island of Koh Phangan. When I say party island I mean an island that has a party for almost every type of mood or natural occurrence. For example while I was there they had a Half Moon party, Black Moon party, Full Moon party, and Jungle Experience party. The Full Moon party is the biggest party on the island. Some businesses close the night of the party, so their employees can attend the event. It was a massive party in the city of Haad Rin where the whole beach was covered with people dancing to a mix of Techno, House, Top 40 and a little Hip-Hop. There was an estimated 10,000 people on the beach that night. It was Bonkers!

Aside from the partying Koh Phangan was a beautiful island. Everywhere bamboo trees grow. Tall, thick, lush, forest green trees cover the majority of the island. Once I left the main area called Thong Sala and went up north into the jungle I got to see just how wild the island really was. In the Jungles of Koh Phangan there are spiders big enough to eat a cat. The spiders are literally the size of a dinner plate. I went into the jungle with a local guide. He told me the spiders are big, hairy, poisonous, and aggressive...but it was the snakes I needed to watch out for. I laughed and told him..."Now we're having fun."

Shopping and eating were easy since the currency is Bhat which is cheaper than the Euro. Most of the clothing was souvenir style apparel you can buy from a bizarre or from one of the many night markets. The food was amazing. Since Thailand is primarily a Buddhist country they have a great selection of vegetarian dishes. My favorite food to eat after exploring was Pad Thai. If you are unfamiliar with the dish. Pad Thai is a mix of bean sprouts, vegetables, noodles and sauces wrapped in a fried egg. Its the perfect food for a hangover or a late night snack. 

The Thai people were friendly, courteous, and some the most generous people I've ever met. My girlfriend left her tablet in the hotel she was staying at in Koh Samui. The hotel staff held on to the tablet and returned it to her a week later. I believe in any other country that device would've been long gone. Below I posted some pics of the local art, which was everywhere on the island. Thailand has some really talented artists. Take a look and if you get the chance, go to visit. 

  

AniManga: Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World)

 Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World) is a blend of science fiction, horror, and deep insight into the mind of humanity. The story takes place a thousand years in the future. It follows a group of kids who learn some forbidden knowledge about their utopian society.  Six children—Saki, Satoru, Maria, Mamoru, Shun, and Reiko—born and raised in a town, named  Kamisu's 66th district, learn about a plot to wage war against humanity and try to stop it.

In the not to distant future, science proves the existence of PK (Psychokinesis). Once people with PK started appearing around the globe there was a scramble by governments to weaponize the ability. Within 100 years people with PK over powered the humans and controlled society. After a few hundred more years, humans without PK waged war against the PK users. This resulted in all out nuclear warfare which almost destroyed the earth.

From the ashes humanity rebuilt. Top global minds decided that disabling PK users from being able to harm or kill other humans was the solution. They believed genetic modification was the only solution to protect mankind from violence ever occurring again. If someone with PK tried to hurt another human, they would suffer "The death of shame."  This would begin with symptoms of mild discomfort ending in death. In every case where a PK user kills someone the result is death by heart attack. 

With these new restrictions placed on on PK users mankind secretly decided  to develop a way to identify people with abilities from normal humans. Then they genetically cross-bred all PK user humans with the Naked Mole Rat and forced them into servitude. This knowledge and all information related to that part of human history was hidden away and stored as forbidden knowledge.

Since PK users couldn't hurt other users without suffering, they used these hybrid (Mole) humans to carry out their warfare and assassinations. They also created mutant cats that could hunt down children who couldn't control their abilities. Kids who couldn't control their PK were called Ogres and were the most feared. 

The story takes place two hundred years after the last ogre appeared. The hybrid humans learn what happened from a living library and once again wage war on the PK users. The result is one action packed anime that I highly recommend watching. 

Leisure Activities

I just returned from vacation in Spain. If you have never been there...I highly recommend it. Most of the vacation was spent relaxing on the beaches in Salou. The rest of the time I was in Barcelona checking out the tourist attractions. There are a lot of leisure activities in both cities.

Salou is a coastal city with nice beaches and tasty cocktails. The first thing people notice about Salou, is how clean the city is. There's almost no litter on the streets and beaches, which is a stark contrast from the beaches of Barcelona. Salou is split onto two sides a north and south. The north side has clubs, bars, games and a shopping district. The south side is residential, most of the patrons are retirees and home businesses. 

One of the biggest tourist attractions in Salou is Port Aventura. Port Aventura is Spain's version of Disney World. It's a massive amusement park with at least eight roller-coaster rides and other attractions for adults. Aside from the roller-coasters (which am a huge fan of) there were live shows, games, and an Aquapark.

The mascot for Port Aventura was Woody Woodpecker. Everywhere you walk in the park there are statues of Woody. It's interesting that such an obscure character is the mascot for such a big park. Each area of the park had a theme related to a country, such as Mexico, China, Hawaii, Polynesia, Sweden, India, and many more. Workers in the individual areas dress in the attire of their country and food stands serve cuisine from the aforementioned country. Overall the food in the park was tasty but over priced...but the rides were superb.  

The easiest method of travel around Salou are street trains. They look like locomotives from the 1800's but they're much faster. There's three different train lines and the routes are separated by colors red, blue, and green. Each train goes on a different route through the coastal region and they repeat every fifteen minutes. Once you buy a ticket you can stay on that train as long as you desire. If you want to ride a different route you have to purchase another ticket. Aside from Salou they go to cities La Pineda, Terragona, and a few others. If you want to see most of the geography without walking, riding the train is the best way.
 
The nightlife was a mix of cocktail bars and discotheques that played top 40. I didn't like most of the discotheques but the cocktail bars were perfection. Depending on your drinking preference (getting a buzz, getting drunk, or absolutely wasted) they have different sizes available. The largest being a ten liter cocktail of mostly liquor and a tiny bit of fruit juice. I wasn't interested in intoxication but wanted to taste everything. There were several places that had whole menu's for six euros. Pina Colada, Mia Tai, Mojito's, Tequila Sunrise, Daiquiri's and broad spectrum of other cocktails were available for the same price. (It was yummy)  

After running around Salou for a week I took my girlfriend to Barcelona. She had never been there and I wanted to visit an old friend. Barcelona or Barca as the locals call it, feels like a college city to me. There are a lot of monuments, statues, museums, and tourist attractions...aside from the beach. Depending on where you go the food can be good and inexpensive. My woman is vegetarian so we shopped mostly at the La Rambla fruit market. The Ramblas is one of the main shopping districts in Barca. Their fruit market is enormous and has a diverse selection of edibles for every type of diet. 

Major tourist attractions in Barca are the Palace, Barceloneta beach, and the Sagrada de Familia, monument by Gaudi. Sagrada de Familia, is a massive cathedral looking building with cylindrical towers and unusual structure. The architecture reminds of buildings out of Batman's, Gotham City crossed with scenes from "A Nightmare Before Christmas." The beaches are man-made and always crowded. Unlike Salou the beaches in Barca were not clean...and that's putting it mildly. Barceloneta had a cool view, cheap food, and more cigarette butts on the beach than sand.
 
The trip was relaxing and a great way to recharge my battery. Now that I'm back in Amsterdam, its time to catch up on business, painting, and making more music. If you want to see more scenes from the trip check out the pic's below.