Maeklong, New York & Seoul
Mid February to mid March, 2012
After motorcycling through Vietnam it was time to hop over to Bangkok to finally attend the premiere of Preduce's
'Chaiyo' which got pushed back a couple times. I am not a big fan of premieres but Simon & Guillaume did a great
job setting up a successful and packed event. Above you can see Ryan Sripeasatja painted as a Smurf. Working
with Op Sudasna (Director) can lead into mysterious path. I never thought I would be filming smurfs in Thailand.
Even after living in Bangkok for a lunar calender year, I haven't scratched the surface of tourist attractions within
the Kingdom. I have seen viral videos of a train crossing through a busy market, but was surprised when Diane
told me that the market is only an hour bus ride away from the capital.
If I remember correctly, the market gets three to four trains crossing per day. Every time a train is approaching the
vendors pull their roofs in and roll their merchandise away from the tracks. It's quite unusual and mind boggling for
outsiders, but quite routine for the locals vendors and customers.
The fruit and products can be an inch away from the tracks, they won't get touched.
Heart & courage of a feline.
Great accompagné for the wanderlust.
New York City dogs waiting for their dogsitter to return right outside of the consulate of the Russian Federation on
the Upper East side of Manhattan. Flew all the way to New York to get a Russian visa to go to Vladivostok...
New Yorkers can get away with a lot of questionable trends and performances.
Dan Zvereff can get away with 360 flipping about anywhere. Kickflipping on an ex-Khmer Rouge airplane, on top of
the houses of Cappadocia, next to ancient monasteries just one of his specialities.
During my week long stay in New York, I made some major camera equipment purchases to get ready for the
upcoming documentaries. Besides buying some different lenses, a glidecam, wireless microphones, I decided to
also get a Contax analog point and shoot camera. As you can see above, having some problems with the focus.
Connections through Seoul are fun, especially when you got a 16 hour layover & Phil Song showing you around.
Arrived at 4am and went for a walk in the Central Asian community of Seoul in Dongdaemun. I could see the cyrillic
and hangul side by side, but the locals seemed to be doing their 'zzz's.
If the Uzbek or Kazakh Koreans are not up to serve me food around twilight, I know I can count on kimchi and fish
at the local market next door.
Korean winter/spring are harsh in the morning. The fan looking device on the right serves as heating.
Around the time of the famine in mid 1990s, North Korea had Propaganda saying, if you eat too much rice your
stomach will explode...
Directing traffic in South Korea can be done by an individual at any age, in the North it can only be assigned to
beautiful single (mainly not married) women.
Thanks to Phil Song for pushing around with me through Seoul, for the midday jetleg beers and for presenting the
opportunity to come back and stay for a bit longer next time.
Back home in China. My neighbor was already complaining where I been for so long.