manaomaiminam

There is a good night club in the topland hotel, walking distance from Pailyn, gets crowded 10:30 on. Plus, if you walk that way but turn left and go over the bridge, there are entertainment areas as well (these are Thai places, not like SC or Nana), but some of the local farangs frequent them as well. The Pailyn is about a block from the river, if you walk to the river and look over on the other side, there is a good night club with girls. Near the main bus terminal, down the side street that leads back to Mitraphab Road (the large, large road that goes from one end of Phitlok to the other, there are several Karaoke bars with ladies in waiting. There are aponuats near the "old airport", towards what is now the army base. You will see the colored lights. By the way, there is not a plethora of tuk-tuk drivers there. There is a tuk-tuk station as you walk close to Topland hotel. If you pay near BKK prices, you are getting royally ripped, be a little hard ass on bargaining, Phitlok is not a rich city, and women are hungry to meet farangs.

Last 2 movies I saw were "The Wolfman" and "Shutter Island". The Wolfman, a remake of the 1941 classic with Lon Chaney, Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy and the inimatable Maria Ouspenskaya (as the gypsy lady), was an interesting collage. Atmosphere in the movie was great, as was the acting with Benedicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Hugo Weaving, et al. However, there were lots of plot jumps in the story that did not hang together, you found yourself asking, how did Lawrence get here or there? The effects were good although, from what I understand, they tried to stay away from CGI effects and let the actors be werewolves often under makeup. Obviously some of the scene had to be very athletic doubles or graphics. All in all enjoyable, but the plot had holes. On the other hand, Shutter Island is not to be missed. Leonardo di Caprio turns in a masterpiece performance (hopefully worthy of an oscar nomination), running through a full gamut of emotions and characters. The supporting cast, Ben Kingsley et al. are excellent. The story is well written and the frightening moments are more those which touch the soul rather than over stimulating the auditory and visual senses--a gimmick much too overused in most "scary" movies. Scorsese has always been one of my favorite directors and IMHO, he does not fail here. The movie does not drag at all in its 2 hours+, but it does require your attention as there are a lot of plot lines to follow as the story untangles. If you take a Thai GF with you who does not speak English well, but rather reads the subtitles, they might be better served to see the movie in Thai, unless they can read the subtitles very quickly, as there are many scenes were is a lot of important, verbal interaction as well as a lot of medical babble. But, all in all, the movie is not to be missed, really, really, excellent.

Just watched Zombieland, a hilarious takeoff on all the Zombie/undead flesh-eating monster movies with Woody Harrelson playing a twinkie-eating zombie killer . Hilarious, and bound to be a cult classic. Remember, the fatties die first.