I reached a point in Phuket at which I had to get my own transport. As I don’t know how to drive a car, my choices were limited: motorbike or bicycle. Riding around on a bicycle all day wasn’t going to cut it, so a motorbike it had to be.

For several weeks I had a Honda Click on temporary loan. Unfortunately, the guy who lent me the bike asked for it back. This meant that I had to go out and buy my first form of motorized transport: a Yamaha Mio.

Although I have perhaps taken my life and left it hanging in the balance, I can now get from A to B without having to rely on other people. The independence of such a thing is fantastic.

Buying the bike was simple. It was just a case of turning up at a shop, filling out a few forms, handing over my work permit and passport and waiting for them to sort out my green book of ownership. The bike came taxed and ready, with a vague assurance that if it ever breaks down I can take it back to be repaired.

There were no questions asked. A three-year old, automatic Yamaha Meo cost me 24,000 baht. If you’re going to live in Phuket or anywhere that isn’t Bangkok, buying or renting a motorbike can be a necessity.

As for my driving, well, I have only had one minor crash, which involved me sliding the bike beneath a parked car, much to the bemusement of several bystanders. No worries. Hassle from the police is minimal. I haven’t once been stopped. The general consensus is that if you don’t make eye contact and you are wearing a helmet, the police leave you be.

I’ve made the trip to Patong twice now – once during the day and once at night. The hill isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Petrol costs me about 90 baht a week. I’d say it’s the most useful thing I’ve bought since coming to Thailand.

Would you believe that over the past five days I’ve had more than 50,000 unique visitors to this blog? The majority of that traffic has been direct to one post. Any idea what that post might be? A few weeks ago I wrote a post about a guy and the ordeal he went through in a hotel trying to communicate with a maid through a series of letters. That’s the post that has drawn all the attention.

I found the content for that post in my email or on another blog, I forget which. It turned out that the content was about 30 years old and appeared in a book. Anyway, the reason it has received so much attention and so many hits is because of the social-bookmarking site Stumbleupon.

Stumbleupon works by people submitting interesting websites, blog posts and news stories to a community that then votes on whether a story is worth other people’s time. I often submit my own articles to Stumbleupon and Digg because it can be a good way of attracting visitors, but the visitors tend to make only brief appearances and then never come back.

But still, if you can hit the front page of Digg or inspire some interest from the Stumbleupon community, you can get traffic, linkbacks and money through advertising.

In this case, I didn’t submit the article in question to Stumbleupon. Someone else did and people seemed to like it.

If you aren’t a member of Stumbleupon, go and join and then add me as a friend.

I spend a lot of my time writing for blogs about music downloads and filesharing. While the music industry hates filesharing, it’s clear that it was so late in dealing with the issue that it now cannot be overcome.

Living in Thailand, there are few people who could say that they do not own at least one pirated item, be it music, software or a movie. Filesharing seems to follow a similar line of thought: If you can get away with it and everybody else does it, what’s the problem?

There are strong arguments for and against filesharing. What is undeniable is that while there may be an ethical issue, the practicalities of eradicating filesharing make such a task impossible.

The record industry is trying, though. Last year, Jammie Thomas was sued by the record industry for $220,000 for using filesharing service Kazaa. Similarly, hordes of university students in the US have been accused of filesharing and sent pre-litigation letters. If the students refuse to settle out of court for several thousand dollars, they find themselves being sued by the record industry.

Thailand is known as a hub for piracy in Southeast Asia where filesharing is commonplace. Filesharing is technically theft, but with so little power to control it in Thailand, clearly there is nothing that can be done for the time being.

In France and the UK, MPs are dead set against filesharing and the solution lies in ISPs being obliged by governments to terminate Internet accounts of people who download music illegally. I cannot imagine such a measure ever being implemented in Thailand.

The problem, then, is that on a global level, filesharing cannot be stopped. So what should be done about it?

Are you pro-filesharing? I have a keen interest in this because I write about it almost every day but rarely get to voice my thoughts in any real discussion.

Culture One over the weekend was an enjoyable event. It was perhaps most memorable for three or four monologues delivered by David Morales towards the end of the night.

David Morales is an A-list DJ. He costs thousands of dollars to book and is universally respected. However, he made a fool of himself in Bangkok and I suspect he will never be invited back.

Picture the scene: He was DJing on a huge stage in front of several thousand people. As his set came to an end, he began rambling.

[Paraphrased] “Bangkok. This has been such an emotional moment for me. I have wanted to come here for many years and now I finally get to be here for you.”

He then began crying on stage.

“Bangkok. Do you love me?” he asked. What an ass. He then asked again, slightly louder. “Bangkok! Do you love me?”

It was the height of arrogance to ask a crowd of drunk clubbers if they loved him. My friend and I tried to heckle him from afar.

”We are here today because you do not have the radio or the press to support the things that I do.”

What is wrong with A-list DJs? They either arrive in Thailand and demand drugs or else come with ridiculous egos. This isn’t a new phenomenon, but it really underlines the fact that big-name DJs are, more often than not, jerks.

I have been in Bangkok all weekend and so a few comments that were posted in response to my last post went unmoderated. The writer of the article in question actually responded to the post and some of the comments made. For those who may not click back to that post, here is what he said:

Just thought I’d respond direct to bloggers here…

First of all the piece I delivered was balanced. I interviewed the Thai government (unfortunately their comments were edited out – not my decision) and I did state that Thailand is a safe place for the vast majority of tourists. I also stress how engaging a place Thailand is.

One other thing that didn’t make it in but was something that jumped out on me when researching the piece is how dangerous Thailand is for Thais. It has an astronomical murder rate and an incredibly high death-from-road-accident rate. The murder/accident rate for ex pat Brits compared to Thais is roughly the same per capita. And that figure is much higher than in the UK. It’s not my fault that’s how the figures stack up. Nor the Independent’s.

I also think many of the people who have commented here have no idea whatsoever how to put together a story like this nor how to get it published. I for one am certainly not anti-Thai in any way, shape or form. The piece is not sensationalised (I have emails from the Charnaud family who I got to know quite well thanking me for my sensitivity) but attempts to tell the story as I saw it.

Thailand has a general problem with its murder and accident rates. My main point is why isn’t the British government telling us about this? What the Thais do about it is their business. But it won’t change until they accept they have a problem

The simple fact remains that 17 UK citizens were murdered in Thailand in 3 years. Nowhere else in the world are UK Citizens murdered at such a high rate per capita. It’s not me asserting this but the cold, hard, undeniable facts.

If that didn’t happen there’d be no story, no article, and you guys wouldn’t feel the need to comment.

I’ve lived in rough parts of London and rough parts of Bangkok and found both have their good and bad points. For example, you’re more likely to get mugged in South London but a lot more likely to get run over in Thailand.

Oh – and the comparisons of time spent in Thailand various people suggest would be impossible to work out. Nobody keeps such data and it’s therefore impossible to quantify. Though I do agree it would be a good way to work out the figures.

Tomorrow I will post up the email I have just sent to Andrew.