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Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot! #36
26 Saturday Jul 2014
Posted Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot!
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26 Saturday Jul 2014
Posted Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot!
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24 Thursday Oct 2013
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As promised, Lucky sent in this great Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot! he took at Wat U-Mong in Chiang Mai. I like the rattan chair that photo-bombed the shot. I’ll be sending a copy to Noom who hasn’t quite figured out why I take so many Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shots! but always points them out to me anyway. Not because this one will make any more sense to him, but that blue chair stacked on top of the red ones will drive his OCD tendencies crazy.
Thanks Lucky!
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18 Wednesday Sep 2013
Posted Travel Photography, Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot!
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It’s been awhile since I posted an Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot! and with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration warning that all districts of the capital will be hit by heavy rainstorms today and tomorrow it seemed like an appropriate time to post this one from my visit during the major flood of 2011. Which within the area of the city frequently haunted by tourists was a pretty poor excuse for a flood. If I recall correctly, it didn’t rain that entire trip. But in anticipation of the flood waters coming, half the town fled to higher elevations, sandbags out numbered 7/11’s, and everyone who could possibly come up with a way to make a few baht off the disaster did so.
Not that the rainfall over the next few days is supposed to reach the flood levels of 2011; they are expecting hourly rainfalls of over 2” Thursday and Friday which means major flooding thanks to the city’s woefully inadequate drainage system, but then that’s not an unusual occurrence during the rainy season. The real problem will come later, in October, when the water from up north makes it way to Bangkok. Flooding in Ayutthaya province has already damaged more than 1,000 homes.
Bangkokians take the normal rainy season flooding in stride, finding a convenient overhang to wait out the worst of the rainfall and then sloshing down the street to their destination once the skies clear. Tourists scoop up cheap umbrellas to stay dry and then discover what the monsoon rains’ opinion is of 99 baht umbrellas made in China. The BMA asks everyone to avoid heavily trafficked areas, everyone assumes that warning is directed at someone else and streets that normally look like a parking lot turn into a diorama of gridlock frozen in time. If the rains hit in the early evening, it kills the business on Soi Twilight. Patpong can look like a ghost town. And if you are foolish enough to brave a visit, the night market vendors rachet up their normal aggressiveness to unheard of heights.
Chatuchak, where the Weekend Market is held, has been singled out as one of the areas expected to be hardest hit over the next few days. If the weathermen are right, that shouldn’t be a problem for the weekend’s business. Which is a shame. I visited the market with my buddy Dave during one rainy weekend and while most of the vendors were there, few customers were around. You could walk down the aisles without having to push through the normal sardine in a can like crowds. Not that anyone with half a brain would anyway. Wading through a foot of flood water at Chatuchak isn’t the smartest thing to do when you consider what that water holds. But then that’s why I enjoy travelling with Dave, when we are together our combined IQ drops into the single digits. But we gave the vendors someone to laugh at, and the few purchases we made were all at great prices. Not taking advantage of the obviously mentally ill must be a form of merit making.
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28 Sunday Jul 2013
Posted Bangkok, Travel Photography, Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot!
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20 Saturday Jul 2013
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Yet another reader has sent in an Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot!, this one taken in Chiang Mai and titled ‘Old Friends.’ As biased as I am toward my own work, I have to admit this is one of the best of this genre I’ve seen. Even without the title leading you to that conclusion, the story this photo tells is an obvious one.
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08 Monday Jul 2013
Posted Bangkok, Travel Photography, Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot!
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Recently, Christian sent in a few Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot!s, both of which take the genre to new levels. I’m only sharing one today – I don’t think y’all could handle both in one post. Filed under If You Build A Better Mouse Trap, I can’t help but applaud some Thai inventor’s attempt to upgrade the Ubiquitous Plastic Stool experience – for a mere $3 no less. It would have been nice if Christian translated the sign, though the concept of personalizing your Ubiquitous Plastic Stool in and of itself makes this photo.
I’m guessing this made for sale on TV wonder product is either a massage pad like those woven wooden bead seat covers they used to sell for cars, or a cooling pad (just pop in your freezer before use and then enjoy hours off cool fun!). I’d thought it could also be a mini bug zapper to keep your Ubiquitous Plastic Stool experience mosquito free, but discarded that idea thinking that resting your back on an electrical product might not be very safe . . . silly me, this is Thailand where respect for the dangers of a live wire is for pussies. And farang.
Though it’s probably a close race, I’d venture to guess the Ubiquitous Plastic Stool population in Thailand still out numbers cell phones. There’s an untapped market out there just waiting for someone to make millions off of. Walk through the 4th floor of MBK and you’ll be amazed – or disturbed – by the number of products on sale to help you pimp your phone. Even in Thailand’s collectivist culture, personalization is a billion dollar industry. It wouldn’t take much to start a Pimp My Stool craze. Justin Bieber is coming to Bangkok and a shot of him above the fold on the Post, posing on a pimped out Ubiquitous Plastic Stool would do the trick. If it was a Bug Zapper Ubiquitous Plastic Stool, the world might even be relieved of one of its major pests.
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25 Tuesday Jun 2013
Posted Monk Shot!, Travel Photography, Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot!
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What’s better than a Monk Shot! or a Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot!? Uh, hello! This two-for, shot in Chiang Mai, was sent in by a reader and should help balance out my blog’s monk/UPS ratio. When you think of Buddhist monks, chanting, praying, and acting all reverent comes to mind. But for novice monks it’s more about doing all the grunt work. Which I’m sure the elder monks tell them is good for their souls.
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25 Monday Mar 2013
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This is my favorite Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot! that Wen sent in from his visit to Vietnam. The Ubiquitous Plastic Stool in the photo qualifies it as an Ubiquitous Plastic Stool Shot! but its appeal is that it is so evocative of the country’s sidewalk culture. And I love the lighting. It almost looks like a painting. At first, I thought it a shame that motorcycle tire photo-bombed the picture, but then if you are summing up Vietnam’s street scene in a photograph, it almost has to have a motorcycle in it now doesn’t it?
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