Street Food Bangkok

My meal - A pork stew (called 'Khao Kha Moo'), with aubergine

and chicken curry + soup. Cost 75 Bhat (about 1.20 Pounds Sterling). http://importfood.com/recipes/khaokhamoo.html
The stall I bought it from

Next to me where I sat - rice porridge cooking away in large pot

Porridge stall (above and below) - I assume every little pot had a different kind of porridge

Pantip Plaza - the I.T. shopping mall

Bus going to Pantip Plaza
Conductress catches a bit of snooz (it's HOT)

The bus I got to the shopping mall

Traffic that day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantip_Plaza

Rama V

I came across this shrine the other day of King Chulalongkorn

(also known as Rama V)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_V

Detail of Rama V from painting below

(in National Museum of Thailand)

Rama V visited the UK (including Edinburgh) in 1897

Malaysian Election Results

The Malaysian General Election took place on the 8th. As I covered the hustings at Pudu I thought I'd better give you the result of that Pudu constituency.......The result for BUKIT BINTANG constituency (KL) was as follows:-

FONG KUI LUN (DAP) 26,811

LEE CHONG MENG (BN) 12,534

Tournout : 67.42%

MAJORITY : 14,277

Mr Fong has turned a slender 300 majority from last election into an astonishing 14,00 majority ! Teresa Kok (Seputeh constituency KL) also significantly increased her majority from 12,895 to 36,492. For more on Teresa see:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Kok

http://teresakok.com/

For more on the election results in general see:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7285864.stm

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/07/malay.elex.ap/index.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/08/malaysia.elections/index.html

The opposition parties obtained the following number of seats:-

PKR 31

DAP 28

PAS (Islamic) 23

Already the DAP's good showing in the election is having implications for central government. Penang State, where the DAP is in the majority, will no longer be following a controversial central government pro-Malay policy:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7289509.stm

For more on this BUMIPUTRA pro-Malay policy

(considered by many to be racist) see:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumiputra

A great deal of international coverage of the election results have focused on one individual: Anwar Ibrahim - presenting him as leader of the opposition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim

After being accused of sodomy and convicted of corruption he was barred from politics for 5 years - till mid-April this year (too late for him to take an active role in the March 8th election). He spent 6 years behind bars - bringing international condemnation of Malaysia's political and legal system. His wife founded the PKR party in 1999 to fight Anwar's cause.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parti_Keadilan_Rakyat

I never heard anyone talking about Anwar or the PKR when I was in Pudu.

Spirit House - my hotel

My hotel has two shrines in the dinning area (taking up room that would have accomodated 6 tables for dinners). I think one may be a spirit house while the other more of a shrine for Royalty. I need to dig deeper for that one.

At the base of one shrine are two figures that look like Chinese dog-lions to me.

Another Spirit House

You may recognise a Chinese diety on right of entrance to the house -

many influences go into the building of these houses.

Once again Thai dancers provide entertainment for the spirit

Chatuchak Weekend Market

Today I caught number 3 bus to and from Chatuchak market. You don't get markets much bigger than this one - 35 acres !!! All kinds of stalls - from cheap clothes, food, antiques etc etc. You name it and it's there......

http://www.into-asia.com/bangkok/markets/chatuchak.php