The country I wish I could love.

About this nation, I long to say these words without holding back a mite of affection:
Oh Singapore, I adore every grain of sand on your beauteous isle, each grain a genuine purchase from the shores of Indonesia and gleaming with bleached whiteness in the sun.
I pledge to defend you from shore to ever-expanding shore, oh milk-generous motherland. Upon your grade A breasts do our best, most educated minds suckle, so they mayst govern with enlightenment.
I dream of the day when I may free my now-trammelled soul to sing of my island home, with right hand over my heart, as a patriotic tear trickles down my right cheek, and fall upon the sacred ground (more precious than gold, and ever-appreciating in value per square foot, day by glorious day!)
To feel a wash of pride as I gaze upon the annual fireworks, each spark making a statement about our IRAS statements whilst flashing across costly national airspace.
But instead, I must abashedly admit, that when invaders mock your laws and culture, I sometimes nod in agreement.
Because banning chewing gum is stupid in anyone's books, even those branded EM3.

Kao San and Chinatown

My best trip to Kao San Road, out of the 3 or 4 times I've been here. This pub/restaurant called 'Hippie Hi' was decorated like a house with walls removed, a bit like Dorothy's Kansas cottage.

Bro and I watched this happy harbinger while gorging on banana prata topped with chocolate and condensed milk. Talk about sense overload!

Another cool eatery/drinkery.

I met a man here. He reminded me of someone, only chattier. I was taking a picture of this quaint shop, then decided to eat green bean soup (partly out of guilt) next to this cute man with his hair slicked back. Who reminded me of Grandad.

Chinatown looks the same everywhere else in the world, they also sell the exact same things, the men and women look the same too.

Bangkok Hotel Hop

The Shanghai Inn is as alluring as its girls...

...shamelessly loud but so beautiful you'd want her anyway.

At i-residence, Bangkok. Painting gave me dreamless sleep but the blinds let in the sun that woke me too early.

On the way to the rooftop restaurant and gym (yes, calorie in, calorie out, all on one rooftop.)

A precarious shelf loaded with alco, stretching 10m to the ceiling, at the Ascott's Hu'u Bar.

Why I want to live in Bangkok

The new airport

Ana's Garden, Thong Lor

Thong Lor again.

It's got the coolest shops for sure.

Foreignworker Foibles

I hopped into the lift. The doors were about to close — only to be hijacked by two very slow-moving and chatty foreign workers on the way to their embassy.
Imagine dealing with earlyrisers' fatigue AND two clueless foreigners who hit close when I hit open, and open when I hit close. It was the first time I experienced pre-constipation constipation.
And when it DID get to the level of their embassy, another guy going down insisted on riding up to the 12th floor with me, even though he was actually headed for the ground floor, and in spite of my warning: 'Going up, are you going up'?
To which he replied: 'Nevermind' and stepped into the lift as if it was a Sentosa monorail.
Maybe people like him have got it right and I've got it wrong — we should take time to enjoy the little pleasures in life. But as he was taking time to smell the roses, I had to smell the lift with him in it.