Thai TV

Thai TV is... interesting. I've already mentioned Scooby-Doo and the pro wrestling. I think there's an entire Thai Pro Wrestling channel, because it's always on. We've been watching a fair bit of Boomerang (on the rare occasions that we're actually in the room, anyway). Besides that though, it's a fair bit of trying to find the English language channels. Last night I bumped into something called Channel Z, which just said Channel Z and had psychedelic patterns over the screen. I watched that for a bit to see if it changed... I'm sure it did, but not until after I gave up on it. This morning I saw some Chinese Swing on Channel V, which was cool, and then we've been watching the MTV-ish channel. It's an interesting mix of American stuff (“Falling For You,” “When the Wheels Come Down,” “My Bloody Valentine,” which is a song now, not just a band, different artist) and local stuff. My favorite so far was definitely the Thai Chick Pop Rock Duo. I think that tune would be stuck in my head forever if it was in English. We also caught some Thai political TV in English briefly, whatever was going on, it was one three different channels. Other than that it's about what you would expect, the occasional kung fu movie (badly dubbed even in Thai), other sorts of movies, incomprehensible childrens' programs, some sort of Animal Planet-style show with a vet, except the hosts all have huge gauges in their ears and goofy hats, what appears to be a soap opera, Bleach (on “Channel Gang Cartoon”), Evan Almighty, local music channel, news, an exercise program with a very intimidating looking host (think Thai Rasputin), Winter Olympics coverage is big here, an Indian channel (I think?), something called “Strawberry Cheesecake” which has a bunch of attractive young women and... a military official? Okay, maybe I lied about it being what you'd expect. In other news, Thai opera, more American movies in Thai, medical show, “Strawberry Cheesecake” again (a lot of shows repeat, but only “Strawberry Cheesecake” is odd enough to mention), The breakfast place usually has ESPN on, I even saw an LA Lakers game the other morning. One channel has a sign language translator in the corner, which is cool. This show appears to be Tom and Jerry with a CGI alien and polar bear. At least I think that's a polar bear. Maybe it's a dog. The alien has lightning powers though. Not like Tom and Jerry, I lied, the alien is telling the... mammal to turn the TV on and punishing him for failure. With tentacle smacks and lightning powers. Yeah, that's kid friendly. Hunh, that channel said “sustainability.” Back to Channel V, I can't understand a word but its bumps for itself have the COOLEST visuals ever. I could watch these bumps for hours. And I come back to the music channel, showing American (okay, Irish) music I don't recognize right now.

I'm calling it a cultural experience, sitting in bed in my hotel watching TV.

Sunday, January 24th, roughly 9:30-9”45 AM local time