Same Same But Different

Our Thai drivers speak no English but they do say a few words such as "lobby" and "same same". "Same same" can mean just about anything, from "yes, it's the same" to "i don't know what else to say". I thought it was just our guys. But at Patpong I saw a shirt that says "Same Same" on the front and "But Different" on the back. This past week's shoot has been "Same Same But Different".

Shoot week 3 highlights:

Finished up at MovieTown, then spent a half day at a temple in Bangkok before moving to a warehouse near the Pine resort which we used as a soundstage.

The temple day was fun - tons of cool shops selling statues, old coins etc. They also sold fried insects, yum (ok I didn't actually try them but I'm told they're quite delicious)

The monks were very interested in our shoot.
Most of the time the monks look quite monkly; however
at the JJ Market I witnessed a monk on his phone,
smoking a cigarette and throwing the cig on the ground. Bad monk!

There is a van that picks our day players up each day in Bangkok and drives them to location. One day when we were shooting at the warehouse, the van picked up a group of a group of people and it was only once they arrived on set that everybody realized several of the people in the van had nothing to do with the film and in fact were tourists from Russia who thought they were going on a tour to a local wildlife park. I guess it was a language issue between them and the driver. They had a nice breakfast on set and were taken back to Bangkok. And now they have a good story to tell their loved ones about their crazy trip to a Thai movie set.

The food here is really tasty. I am careful about not eating soups or drinks made from tap water (or ice), and I'm definitely one of the less adventurous thai food eaters on the US crew. If I don't know what it is, I'm not eating it! But every day I do eat some thai food. The pineapple here is pretty divine. It reminds me of some pineapple I ate in Fiji in 1986. One night, though, Yasha and I decided to grab a bite to eat at the resort's restaurant. The food has been uniformly delicious there; however, twice now there have been ants in our food, and a couple of people have gotten sick after eating there, so we had pretty much agreed to not eat there anymore. However, since there's nothing else around it's kind of the only game in town so this one time we decided to go and just get something really plain like rice. Of course, when I ordered, they told me there was no more rice. So they ordered some noodle thing for me. Then they came back and said they had rice after all, so I thought they would bring me what I originally ordered. Nope. They brought me some boiled rice and chicken in broth. The kitchen was closing and nobody spoke any English so I ate the meal with some trepidation. It was very good but I just kept thinking to myself "don't eat the soup! the soup is made with tap water and you will get very sick!". So I ate the rice and the chicken but drained out the soup. I'm such an American tourist. Not the most relaxing dining experience of my life but knock on wood I survived and am just fine.

One of our actresses is the most adorable little 7-year old girl in the WORLD. She is so sweet and she is learning English (she can count from 1-10!). The other day on set she brought me a bracelet that she made by herself plus the most lovely note. I will treasure it FOREVER :-)

"For You...Nicole. I'm do it myself...this accessorie in really () to do for you, while we are working together I have so much fun and nice experience....work with professional guy like you it's really amazing time! Really nice to meet you!...and you always in my mind...Hope to see you again Don't forget me"

On my day off this week I went into Bangkok to shop at the world's largest weekend market, called Chatuchak market (also knownn as JJ Market). This market covers 35 ACRES and contains 15,000 stalls.I went with 3 other girls and we had a blast. It was hot and crowded but we found some good stuff - not just the touristy stuff like they had at Patpong, but clothing, food, books, furniture, you name it. We also found the equivalent of a farmers market where I bought a whole bunch of local delicacies for the girls on our crew.

The only thing I didn't like was that they have a whole section of live animals - puppies, kittens, fish, turtles, snakes, lizards, squirrels, bunny rabbits- pretty much any kind of animal you could have as a pet. They were kept in tiny cages and it was really hot. I'm sure all these animals came from puppy mills (or the equivalent for each animal) and once they're not cute little puppies anymore they probably get discarded. I really hated that. I know there's nothing I can do, being in a foreign country where the culture of pets is totally different, but I didn't like witnessing it AT ALL.

Today it's back to work. I finally found my favorite thai dish, called Mee Krob. I've been asking for it at every restaurant and have been uniformly given blank stares in return. Then today as I was walking through the Ayutthaya Floating Market I saw it in this lovely box, packed like a dessert. I asked the

shopkeeper what it was and she said "Mee Krob" - WAHOO!!! So I guess it's considered a dessert/snack, and not something anyone would have on a restaurant menu as an appetizer. Anyway, it is deelish!