Why are they facing the same direction in the Bangkok metro?

Photo credit: Demotix

While not a frequent tourist to Thailand, I'm glad that the few times I was there, there was no visible trouble from the red or yellow shirts. To be held hostage in Bangkok airport for eight days (just because you jumped in at the 0 dollars promotion from budget airlines) must have been an excruciating affair; in December 2008 how you wished you were holidaying in Europe instead. After my overland exploration in January, Thailand is now low on my radar so I'm not overly concerned about the security situation in Bangkok. When I heard troops were deployed in Silom to prevent the Reds taking over the area, however, that caught my attention.

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Second Shot from a Malaysian Magazine

Hi it is me. I'm back from hiatus. Last weekend in Malaysia, I spotted this interesting magazine at the news-stand in Dang Wangi Station. The cover was enough to send my heart racing. It could not have been more coincidental, as the day before I was at the same place in the cover doing .... research. I gave the unwrapped magazine a flip and was sold on this RM5 copy.

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Tongue Twister Road Names of Simei, the Four Beauties Revisited

Artist's impression of the four classical beauties

After I blogged about the toponymy of Simei here and here, a journalist from U Weekly emailed me about his work on the same topic. It is no coincidence that Jin and I are both males and interested in the four renowned beauties of ancient China who gave the estate its name. His work never came to fruition unfortunately and I lost the chance to read a more professional presentation on the topic. Thankfully Jin shared with me his research and tipped me on two most important piece of information.

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The Old East Coast (3) - On the Seashore in front of 23 Amber Road

23 Amber Road (Photo credit: Google Street View)

You know what? While rummaging through my hard drive last week, I finally found my precious photos taken in June 2007 behind Butterfly House. Yay!

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The Old East Coast (2) - Remains of Cemetery "Kubor Lansam" at Siglap

It is the occassional chinese tomb in the wild that gets reported while not much is written about their Muslim counterparts. Hence I was delighted when Siew Min alerted me to a pair of solitary Muslim tombs in Siglap area.

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