FunkyPix2: January 2012

Chiangmai's iBerry mega-mutt has acquired sunnies.

Dear Reader, this post is a just a rag-tag collection of Updates and Oddities from our home-base in Chiang Mai for your visual delectation and delight. After this, I'll moth-ball FunkyPix2 until we get back from our forthcoming trip to southern India. Yep, Marie feels the urge to sample some Ganesh Chaturthi, Churmi Laddu, Puli Keerai and other dishes so familiar to you all.
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While we're on the topic of large animals, here's a nauseating sight from the local department store in Chiangmai:

Better than the Chiangmai Night Safari, actually...

...less smelly, and free.

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...and now for the Chiangmai Weather Report. Here's another scattered storm, seen from our balcony. This one missed us...

That's our kitchen window on the right.

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All you weird foreigners, like those Strayans in the remote colony Deown Under can marvel at the following disaster msg I got on my iPhone a few weeks ago. Melbournites should maybe consider asking Ms Gillard for disaster relief funds, come July, based on the Thai precedent:

Thaivisa.com is a useful news source for expats in or out of Thailand.

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...and while we're in the political Twittershere, here's an iPhone screenshot of a "say-it-all" tweet from wlfriends.org:

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"It is the absolute responsibility
of everybody in uniform to
disobey an order that is

either illegal or immoral".

(US General Peter Pace, Feb 17, 2006).

Therefore, all charges against Bradley Manning
and Julian Assange have to be dropped.
They deserve a Nobel Peace Prize, not that
disappointing drone-monger Berreck Obomber.

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I just cannot let the racist Australian Liberal Party MP Theresa Gambaro get off scott free for accusing migrants of having body odour and needing to be trained to stand in queues. She's the party's Citizenship Spokesperson, for goodness sake! For such hatespeak, may her political career go rapidly south, despite her belated attempt at an apology. It showcases her fundamental lack of understanding of her job. May I politely remind Ms Gambaro that Australia welcomed new European arrivals, some of whom were probably named Gambaro, to Australia in the post-WW2 decade. As a child, I recall the taunts and name-calling ('dagos', and later, 'wogs' etc) along with cruel accusations of garlic-breath from then-new strange foods like pizza, lasagne and spaghetti, without which Australians of 2012 would all but starve to death. Back in the fifties and sixties, Italians were also unfairly singled-out for their body-odour. One generation on, and nothing has changed. Racist John Howard re-ignited it. Racist mud sticks. FAIL.
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This mini-poem (by Leonard Robbins) succinctly makes the point:

How a minority

Reaching majority

Seizing authority

Hates a minority.

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I also remind the good readers of Funkypix2 that Australia is the only country in the world where the word 'Liberal' means 'Conservative'. In fact, the very name "Liberal Party" is a Big. Fat. Lie. But one might expect no less from a corporate suck like Tony Rabbit. I only wish I could un-see that disgusting image of Mr Rabbit in his Speedos. Never again, please... just don't.
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OK, politics finished! On with matters more domestic. Thailand's economic recovery is being led by secondhand dress/bag/shoes sales:

Marie volunteered to assist at a Thai friend's market stall. It all rapidly outgrew the umbrella, but mâi bpen rai, it was a fine day anyway, chok-dee ca. The ghost of the Funky Bitz North Queensland Marketing Empire lives on. And yeah, thanks, my back's recovered now.
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Speaking of commerce, a new dress shop opened on the ground floor of our condominium last week. Every good Thai shop needs to be consecrated by Buddhist monks, and we attended the ceremony:

Lots of chanting, food, prayers, food, incense, drinks, food, prayers, then we finished with a big Thai meal in case any passers-by felt hungry. An elderly Japanese couple had turned up for the proceedings in their little white jalopy:

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Undoubtedly, having a big Mitsuoka Sports parked immediately outside might well help to attract promising financial karma to the shop. The owners weren't reticent about telling everyone how much their car cost, either. A paltry 3.5 million Baht... or was it Yen? Hell, who cares? [pout]. We're now members of the OCCUPY HUAYKAEW ROAD MOVEMENT. Please donate to our cause... we wanna join the Nouveau One-Percenters. Yeah, sure, our other car is a Honda Jazz, fully equipped with steering wheel and cigarette lighter that works, so there... even though we [ahem] don't even smoke. Ain't Capitalism grand?
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Nic and Joe, still proudly in the 99%, are here for a few months to work. Here they are at Chiang Dao in a staff meeting, being photographed incognito with their iced mango juices by the FunkyPix staff photographer:

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...and here's the view of Chiang Dao mountain from their breakfast table - yes, I agree, it was a rather smoggy day. Farmers, as usual at this time of year, had been burning off old stubble in rice paddies:

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Of course, when at Chiang Dao, do visit the limestone caves:

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South of Maesai there is a temple cave with the usual de rigeur covered staircase leading up the mountain to the cave. But what particularly caught our eye was the unexpected crowd of people grimly hanging on by their fingernails from the Buddha statue on top of the pillar.
My oh my, Enlightenment sure is hard-earned if you're a 99-percenter:

(You can embiggen any photo by clicking on it)

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Ta-daaa !!!
Episode Two of the Redshirt Army Propaganda Chronicles:

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(Sound FX: threateningly low-pitched sub-tone to play during this paragraph)
It was previously spotted outside Thaksin Shinawatra's Silk Shop near our condo. This time the dreaded Redshirt rickshaw, still festooned with pictures of the new (Redblouse?) prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, made a cameo appearance at Chiangmai's "Three Kings" monument, perhaps in an attempt to score good historical karma. Ah, but serendipity had cunningly conspired to park it next to a politically loaded NO LEFT TURN sign. Not only that, but also in a NO PARKING zone, as designated by the red/white kerb. Curiously, as suggested by Thai legal precedent, it's OK to break the law if you are a bonafide member of the Shinawatra clan ...or on its defacto payroll (aka "perhaps-to-be-rewarded-later-after-the-boss-gets-back" list).
(Sound FX fade out)
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Meanwhile, back at home on our balcony, our marble statue of the Quan Yin [goddess of mercy] has finally got its act together and started giving the thirsty naga-dragon its long-awaited drink: