Bangkok Week 136 February 3, 2011 Alias: Jakarta Week 4, plus a side trip to Khao Yai National Park for BCG Bangkok's annual New Year trip. View fullsize Annual New Year's trip -- this time to Khao Yai National Park about 2 hours outside Bangkok. It's known for its mountains and wineries. View fullsize First stop after lunch: an "adventure park" owned by the family of a colleague. View fullsize The activites clearly derive from bizarre Japanese gameshows. Game #1: Human-vegetable-bowling. View fullsize You get the idea? Note: feet are strapped together. View fullsize Assistants were required to help right the fallen veggie pins. View fullsize Game #2: Solve a math equation, and then slap the correct number tile with your giant hand. View fullsize Hilarity ensures -- and often no clear winner determined. View fullsize Needless to say, I was on the pink team. View fullsize Game #3: Catch the giant pinball as it drops over the edge. View fullsize Way harder than it looks! View fullsize This local dog was getting more attention than the team-building games. View fullsize Game #4: Push your teammate into the target zone... View fullsize ... but not too far, lest they end up in the water! View fullsize Entertainment for all... except those being pushed down the plank. View fullsize Too tired to play. Let's all just relax together. View fullsize Yay pink team, the losers of the day! View fullsize The annual "Newbies' Performance" was MC'd by a strawberry and pineapple, naturally. View fullsize Does this quality as office attire? View fullsize Finally able to see the resort in all its glory the next morning. View fullsize Even in the morning, the mountainous weather was still surprisingly cool! View fullsize On the way back to Bangkok, a pit-stop at a mock Italian countryside village. Surprisingly detailed. View fullsize All he wanted for his 3Nth was a neck tie... so why not a Batik one? View fullsize Birthday dinner at Indus, an classy Indian joint in a classy part of town. View fullsize Well, who knows how classy it really was... it was so dimly lit, we couldn't see. View fullsize No shortage of goodies. View fullsize My reward for speding Chinese New Year at the Mandarin: 3 bananas and a mystery puck. Joy. View fullsize Jakarta traffic the night before CNY was significantly worse than usual. Fathomable? (We waited 1.5 hours for a taxi.) View fullsize But on CNY morning, no cars in sight. Also a Jakarta first. View fullsize Local communities are reminiscent of Bangkok. View fullsize All restaurants of this genre seem to display their food on stacked plates in the window. View fullsize Okay, Jakarta canals may have one up on Bangkok. You can smell them from blocks away. View fullsize Many malls are like MBK: individual stalls and sellers throughout. View fullsize Eye-crossing displays at a local Hypermart. View fullsize Self-serve frozen fries and dogs. Mmm. View fullsize Hehehe, aren't Jakarta tuk-tuks funny? View fullsize Which fruit do you want? It's like a carnival game: reach in, and grab what you can. View fullsize Krispy Kreme, the easy way: imported from Indonesia. View fullsize Aww, aren't they cute? They're mini!
