I have also enjoyed reading about your adventures, now ENOUGH yammerring, get out there and buy me some jewel's.
Have you had any Goon's made? Where's Perfidia?

Have I had any goons made?!!?? Bitch I've got 6 in the works! Have you ever seen that queeny series of paper doll books, like "fashions of the 1930's" etc. Well, I brought the "Carmen Miranda Paper Dolls" book to use as reference and I'm having this gorgeous red gown copied. It'll have a train so I won't be able to use it too often.

Getting clothes made is really cheap but it's a bit of a job on my part. I have to go back and forth a lot to the place and I have to do fittings in the middle of this unairconditioned flea market type place. They have a small booth full of showgirl clothes. They make them in a different location. They tie up a piece of fabric for me to change behind. I've got to get into the Danskins, the corset, yada yada, then I have to come out in the aisles looking like some nutty crossdresser (no offense intended Hattie) and get measured while people walk by. They are used to "Katoey" but I don't think that they can see me and understand that I'd look different in makeup. It's very funny!

I'm leaving for the beach soon. Bangkok is very polluted and the heat mixed with the exhaust can really get to you. In stark contrast, the beaches down south are pristine. When I come back Benjalady and his boyfriend Thang (yes that's her name) are going to go with me to Pattaya, the town with the huge drag shows. We're going to try to see both in one day.

I'm writing to you from the fancy bathhouse. It's one of those places you could never leave. But I will. I'm not THAT pervy. I am being a little more pervy this year though. At home I would be wayyy too self concious to walk around in a towel. I hope Chelsea culture stays away from here forever! They do have some reverse body image issues here. They'll have perfect flat abs and then think they're too skinny!

You know here, the country not just the bathhouse, they would never think of making a frozen drink with syrup. There's always pineapples, oranges, pappaya, bannanas etc. On the street you could get frozen drinks for under $1. Here, since it's classy and expensive, made with Bacardi instead of local, and seved in a tropical garden courtyard full of cute guys in towels, I had to pay a whopping $2.25 for my frozen watermelon drink.

Oh, I meant to tell you about one of the most twisted things I've seen around town: Osama Bin Laden T-shirts. No, the Thai are not pro Taliban. It's just that throw-anything-on-a T-shirt mentality. Like in NY they are selling baseball caps that say "ground zero". What's that about?

Well, at the same T-shirt stand I'd see some anti Osama shirts, some with just his face (pro?), and some weirdly neutral ones. The most comman has the WTC in the center with closeups of Bush and OBL hazily superimposed on either side. It says "The Day The World Changed"

Mind you I've never seen anyone wear them. It's like those shirts and 9" buttons you used to see on 8th street that said things like "Bend Over Bitch!" Did you ever see them on a person?

Well, I'm gonna go git me some action. I need a break from my nunlike life in NY. Take care, don't slip in the snow.

[This message was edited by Miss Understood on 02-09-02 at 10:03 AM.]

[This message was edited by Miss Understood on 02-09-02 at 10:04 AM.]

[This message was edited by Miss Understood on 02-17-02 at 03:08 AM.]

I also have also wanted to go to bang-cock (is that the correct spelling -hattie?)especially since jo jo showed me all the boots he had made there!!!!
How about a jackie further vacation-boot making holiday!
kitty

You can get boots done, boobs done, anything ya'need!~

I'm taking a break from all the shopping. I'm in a beach town called Krabi. I'm staying in a Bungalow on a nearby quieter beach. This area is known for dramatic rock formations, huge spooky limestone cliffs surrounding the beaches, and caves. Yesterday I took a boat ride that took us to 4 islands. It was an all day trip that included lunch and snorkeling (less than the price of a movie). The fish here are so colorful. I really relate to them. There is this one fish that is pretty large and colored with every color in the day-glo spectrum {A little bit of trivia: did you know that the term "day-glo" is copywritten! If I ever sell those fish I'll have to call them "Fluorescent"}

Today I am going to some temple that's in a cave. Very Indiana Jones, huh.

Yesterday I saw this shallow cave in the side of a cliff that has been made into a shrine for some mythical princess. It is comman to bring her phallic offerings. There were piles of big wooden weenies all over the place. No, I didn't take any! I'll post a photo when I get home.

So the caves were shallow, no big deal. But then I went on this loooong walk up to a mountaintop shrine. It was all steps...2200 steps! It was exhausting but the view was breathtaking. There were lots of monks meandering around. I was dying to suck one off!

Let me explain. Thailand is swarming with monks, usually dressed in these orange or mustard robes. Most men, sometime after high school, become a monk for a few months to a year, as a learning and spiritual experience. They are not necessarily the oh-so-serious-devote-my-life-to-Buddha types. They're always doing things they're really not supposed to do like shopping for CD's. In Bangkok there's this big big mall full of computers and software called Pantip Plaza. It is chock full of hot twink monks in their swaggy robes playing video games and shopping.

So here, by the beach, it's warmer and the robes are more abbreviated. It's just the mustard skirt and the matching one armed top (very trendy) that has ties up one side. Not only is one arm free but the one nipple is almost always exposed! There was this one muscular monk with little goatee, tattoos on his arm, and a nice big pinkish brown nipple! He also had that big Thai smile that I love so much. I'll dream about him tonight! What secrets does he hide under his holy robe?

.

quote:

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It is chock full of hot twink monks in their swaggy robes playing video games and shopping

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Missy U.
The travel channel has nothing on you sweetie! Keep these post cuming.

Have you ever noticed how bad travel articles in magazines an newspapers are? They are all formatted around overpriced packages. Even here, if you pick up a free (advertiser funded) tourist guide or map, it is full of listings for things that are absurdly overpriced for what things cost here. This place is so gorgeous that there's not much more the pricey places can offer you. You don't need a pool with a crystal clear ocean in front of you! A simple, lovely, Gilliganesque bungalow is about $10 a night. The "roughing it" bungalow with no screens is about $4. I went for the extra fancy, tiled floor, air conditioned, $17 one! I felt extravagent! Everything is very tiki-like. The places you eat are patios covered in thatched roofs. There are swankier places that can cost anywhere from $40 to hundreds but it's a bit stupid to bother. The cheap places are so cute and the atmosphere is amazing. And, you get gourmet food for the price of a Happy Meal! Okay, there are some concessions. Cheap places on the beach have no hot water. After one day it doesn't bother me.

Last night I discovered where the local fags are. The disco of course! The manager is this mary with long nails who kept trying to get jiggy with me. Why do I always get hit on by the queens and the women!

Traveling alone can be weird at times, but it gives me a chance break my regular routines. I never get a TV in my room, so I fall back into a habit of reading, something I hardly do normally.

I read an great book about Jayne Mansfield. She was such an amazing freak! Then I read The Celluloid Closet. Anyone out there who's a fan of film should definitely pick it up. There is so much interesting dirt about changed plotlines and industry politics. There's also a lot of info about early "sissy" characters in films. I can't wait to make a list and hit Kim's Video!

Now I'm reading "Infinite Variey" about the Marchesa Casati. Chi Chi you must have read this! In the early 1900's this filthy rich exhibitionist eccentric constantly shocked Venice with her "goth" wardrobe, her bizarre home, and her dramatic antics. She would walk down the street at night nude, wrapped in a tiger skin, walking two Cheetahs on a leash! There's a lot more! She was sort of a high society Amanda Lepore. Maybe we need a "reading list" topic!

There is a topic like that in The Versailles Room called bibliofile.

http://motherboards.infopop.net/3/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=873293195&f=257291895&m=919291466

How do you post? Internet cafe? I'm always amazed how wired the world really is. We have been in some pretty remote places and they always seem to have some sort of Internet cafe. (always with teen age kids online buying Hip Hop clothes)

There are more internet places in Thailand than there are bodegas in NY. The standard price is less than $1 an hour, although when you are in a beach town the price goes up and the speed goes down.

I finished that book and I now say that Marchesa Louisa Casati was a cross between Morticia Adams, Amanda Lepore, Lynn Yeager, and Edina Monsoon, with a little bit of PT Barnum sprinkled on for flavor!

Oh by the way, I think I got a little 24 hour (I hope) bug. It happens.

Remember the "water part". That's the one I always forgot. I really makes quite a big difference.

Oh and speaking of...
I saw Perfidia @ Field Ball. She confessed to being a big lurker. She has been reading all of this so be careful what you say.

That hairy backed man in a wig (though a well styled wig I might add) has been lurking and not posting!? Will someone please teach her how?

I wish I could have been there. I always hear great stories about Pat Field's balls.

It was a 24 hour thing, so I'm up and ready for my next adventure... breakfast.

[This message was edited by Miss Understood on 02-17-02 at 03:05 AM.]

In these countries copyrights and trademarks are not so easily upheld. I think all of the bootleg CD's and software are technically illegal, but you see them everywhere, even in stores.

I love the kooky business names that pop up like "Coffeebucks" and "Pizzaria Hut". In Turkey last year we saw "The Hard One Cafe". Yesterday I saw the "Harry Potter" Hair Salon, complete with the real logo. How Harry Potter would relate to hair is beyond me.

That's like Japan. In Tokyo you would see these big huge Times Square-ish billboards with words misspelled. I remember one time I flew to Tokyo to open this new club. They had these brass letters imbedded into the concrete with the club's name. It looked really nice except they spelled club "culb". They didn't care. It just had to look Western. Once we stayed in this fancy hotel called "Hotel With". With what? They just don't care, it's all about the look. Boxes of tissues would say, "Dear my friends how many happiness". That was a huge ad campaign there. I remember Malcolm McClaren telling me before I went to Japan. "You will love Asia, it's like going to another planet. The only problem with the Japanese is that they don't speak English...
they just think they do".

Well, I was actually talking more about obvious knock-offs and rip offs of brand names, but your point is well taken. Although the Thai do that somewhat less than the Japenese, there are a lot of Japanese knock off products (t-shirts,etc) that are very that.

I'm sure Americans were occasionally guilty of the same thing. Remember those 80's shirts with the big red sun and the chinese writing? What the hell did they say? And didn't we have a period of French writing on T-shirts?

But yeah, nobody so blatently mangles English like the Japanese. Dany's friend found some cartoon stationary that misspelled something as "cunt." Dany, if you're reading, do you remember what it said?

Oh one thing that is interesting, the Japanese and the Thai both love the song "Happy Birthday'. Even if they don't speak a work of English, they'll sing "Happy Birthday." I heard it here on TV to a different tune. I should see if it's on any CD's.

I'm sure that many of you have been there, but for those who haven't, here's a wonderful site about the cross-Pacific phoenomenon known as Engrish:

www.engrish.com

Perhaps Miss Understood will make a few photo contributions...such as the following, my favorite



Who says the language is off? I think that's insightful as hell!

MS

Thanx Minerva,
That's exactry what I'm talking about.



[This message was edited by daddy on 02-18-02 at 11:57 AM.]

I have a watch from Japan that has a picture of a flower on it and it say's FROWER! right on the face.
Miss Undertaker, what a fabulous adventure you are on, here's an idea for you, since you have such business savvy, organized trans-tours to Asia! think about it, Also I have been looking into Marchesa Casati, what an amazing woman, we love her, I smell Wildenstein...

Actually M. Ra, as I was reading that book all I kept thinking about was how you would live for it! It gets sicker as it goes on but I won't spoil it for you. If Todd ever finishes "My face for the world to see" this should be his next film!

I won't embarass anyone by name, but you should see some of the emails I get from certain Asian queens in NY. You sometimes forget that people with limited English will write the way they speak. It's very cute, it's always the "L" and "R" switch. But they're not publishing or printing anything! Why these big companies don't have decent proofreaders is beyond me... but I like it.

I saw a drag show at "DJ Station" last night. It's a hipper gay disco. The show was fierce. They do so many of those boy numbers, but the boys wear adorable outfits. Last night the looks were so fashion forward it blew away anything I've seen in NY for a while. They also do those group dances that are all about looking great and being synchronised but not at all about great dance moves. I love that! I love artifice! The show was definitely more "with it" than the big super-shows, but the big ones are sick in a different way.

We are currently experiencing some weirdness with this topic - it appears to have disappeared, but hasn't been deleted. Hopefully this post will bounce it back to the top of elsewhere!