Our New Wii July 21, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Leisure , add a comment
We had an expensive weekend. Instead of traveling during the Friday – Sunday holiday, we decided to go shopping.
I’m not a fan of watching TV but Tik’s been compaining that she doesn’t get a chance to follow Thai news anymore. She’s been keen to get a TV for a while and I wanted a Nintendo Wii for myself which needs the TV to play on.
After doing some comparison shopping and online research last Friday we settled on what we wanted and got ourselves a 40" Sony Bravia TV with DVD player and home theater sound (a little bit of overkill in our 100m2 apartment) and a US Wii with 10 games to get us started.
We haven’t got UBC TV installed, and we aren’t really sure if we want it. Tik can now watch the free Thai TV stations – although reception isn’t great.
We’re both really enjoying the Nintendo Wii though. It’s tiring and although my favorite games is probably Mario Kart, Tik’s spent most of her time with Wii Sports Golf and ‘Brain Train’. We had a friend over yesterday who really enjoyed playing it.
The Nintendo Wii’s quite a niche product in Thailand as the only versions available are imported Japanese or US versions. They also require you to have a large area to move around in if you’re going to make the most of it. We’re hosting another party next month and are looking forward to having our friends play a tournament with it.
We Will Rock You July 21, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Leisure , 3comments
Tik and I went to see ‘We Will Rock You’ last Thursday at the Muang Thai Rachadalai Theatre in Bangkok.
This was a live musical with the international traveling cast. The theater is, from what I understand, Thailand newest (and possibly only) proper theater and opened less than 12 months ago. It was clean, modern and very impressive, by both Thai and Western Standards.
There have been a number of big-name shows in Bangkok over the last 18 months including ‘West Side Story’ (regrettably missed that one), ‘Cats’ (glad not to have seen that) and now this.
‘We Will Rock You’ takes you through a well-staged display of famous Queen songs through a badly-written script by Ben Elton. Script aside, if you like Queen songs the show delivered over 2 hours of talented singing, ok dancing and some great staging and special effects.
Quite thoughtfully this live musical actually came with Thai subtitles that were displayed on 4 TV screens at the sides of the stage in realtime.
It ws sad that the theater was perhaps only one-third full. At over 1,000 for the cheapest seats this type of entertainment is just not practical for most Thai couples. If the theater realized that a live musical is a greater experience for the cast and audience if the seats are full then perhaps they could make efforts to reduce ticket prices and make shows accessible to the masses.
A write-up of ‘We Will Rock You’ can be found here.
Group Weekend in Pattaya July 16, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Friends, Leisure , add a comment
We spent the weekend with about 10 other couple who’d married in March 07 like us. We’ve been friends with these people since before our wedding as Tik was a member of Wedding Square – a website for Thai brides to network and to discuss their wedding plans.
Bang Krachao Park – “The Lungs of Bangkok” July 5, 2008
Posted by Martin in : Leisure, Thailand , 1 comment so far
When we have no plans for a weekend Tik and I enjoy getting out of the condo to get some fresh air.
We’ve visited the main parks in Bangkok but as we were both lamenting about how we’d like to find somewhere different we discovered a newspaper article about a park that’s only about 20 minutes drive from us. We decided to go there with our Friend David and his 2-year old daughter Jessica.
The park is close to the best floating market I’ve ever been to. We arrived there at about lunchtime yet it was not uncomfortably busy. The fresh food was great value, the area was clean and there was a lot of local crafts that we’d not seen anywhere else.
This was a big day for Jessica as she’d never left Anna for so long and she was very well behaved.
Whilst David and Jessica enjoyed the pedalo, Tik and I hired a bike and cycled round. We were delighted to find a 4-storey viewing platform where we could see our condo from.
