The Internet is a dangerous resource. It gives anyone with a phone line access to a wealth of technology that can then be used to do the most bizarre things. If you’ve ever been to Pattaya, then you will know that the city attracts its fair share of oddballs. I have been to Pattaya a handful of times and it is what it is. There were a couple of times when I took friends to Pattaya just so they could see how nuts parts of the city are.

Although there is more to Pattaya than prostitution, there are a large number of bar girls working in the city. For those people who try and speak in defense of Pattaya, such words often fall on deaf ears because there are people like Aaron McCreanor making videos about “picking up Thai hoes” and posting them on YouTube, where millions of people can watch them.

No big deal, you might think. But is Aaron McCreanor representative of the typical sort of person whom Pattaya attracts? Watch this video, imaginatively titled “Aaron picking up more Thai hoes in Pattaya Thailand”. There’s really nothing out of the ordinary in it, until halfway through when you see Aaraon mocking a Thai bar girl who is having Aaron’s named tattooed on her left breast. A second girl has “Aaron” tattooed on her back. All this while the lyric “Stupid girl” is repeated.

Aaron names the girls “stupid tattoo girl number one” and “stupid tattoo girl number two”. Take a look:

So what’s the problem? They obviously weren’t dragged kicking and screaming. Perhaps my misguided judgment finds it somehow deplorable that a person would allow someone to have their name tattooed on their body and then call that person stupid.

What are other people’s thoughts on this? Should YouTube even allow this sort of material to be plastered over its channels?

I first heard about this story a couple of weeks ago. You may have seen it covered by Kom Chad Luek or on Channel 3.

A guy in Phen district, Udon Thani, named Sathian Khenkutrang married his pet python because he believes that the two were lovers in a past life. Sathien was, apparently, a bodyguard for a deity whose daughter he then fell in love with.

Phrayanakho, the deity, didn’t approve of the relationship and so he had Sathien executed. The daughter died of a broken heart.

After 600 years of looking for each other, the happy couple were reunited and lived in peace for a short time until visitors flocked to meet Sathien and his limbless bride.

One villager, who demanded that Sathien correctly predict forthcoming lottery numbers to prove his story, was run out of town by angry locals.

There has been some concern about a man living in wedlock with a 12-foot python, but the pair appeared to be doing OK… until: Sathien’s wife laid a magical egg and left him in the night.

With Sathien’s wife nowhere to be seen, there has been speculation among locals that the egg could be the offspring of the snake-human couple.

It took a team of “experts” the debunk the idea that the couple may have produced a baby of some sort.

The man and his now-departed snake bride have been the talk of town for several weeks. I’ll keep you updated on further developments.

The Bangkok Post ran an unusual story today about a guy in Phetchaburi who has harnessed the power of the sun to cook chickens. He roasts whole chickens with sunlight reflected by an enormous wall of small mirrors.

Sila Sutharat found the inspiration for this brainwave from when, as a child, he would use a magnifying glass to harness the power of the sun’s light.

Unfortunately for K. Sila, he appears blissfully unaware of the damage that reflected UV rays can do to the skin. This guy roasts up to 50 chickens a morning with intensified UV rays. I guess it’s comparable to sticking your head in a microwave while heating something up.

To give you an idea of how intense this light is, he can roast an entire chicken in 10 minutes.

He has been awarded an honorary bachelor’s degree in the field of production technology from the Phetchaburi Rajabhat University.

Let’s see how many bachelor’s degrees he is awarded when his arms fall off.

I’m usually not keen on poking fun at Thinglish for the sake of it, but in the world of real estate and high-end hospitality, where multi-million baht firms are trying to sell hotel rooms, condos and houses, specifically to foreigners, there really is no excuse for not paying someone with half a brain a couple of thousand baht to read over ad copy.

Picture the scene: On the drive from Kathu to Patong, there is a large hill. Almost at the foot of the hill, there is an enormous billboard, from a company I won’t name and shame, that reads:

Every our steps serve your lifestyle

This is a needless massacring of the English language because those billboards, as well as the product this particular company is selling, are bloody expensive.

I have no problem with small restaurants or guesthouses using odd spelling and grammar, but when companies worth millions of dollars can’t come up with a simple sentence, it makes you wonder where else they’ve cut corners and costs.

Writing ad copy for property developers and hotels is one of the most boring jobs in the world, but even one of the English-language teachers bumbling about on Yaowarat Rd could come up with something better than “Every our steps serve your lifestyle”.

My girlfriend told me this story. A Bangkok-based friend of my girlfriend’s once went to Chatuchak weekend market with the intention of buying a puppy. She found the perfect pup, a black-and-white dog that melted her heart with how adorable it looked.

She bought the puppy for about 5,000 baht and took it home. It wasn’t long before the puppy began exhibiting unusual traits for a dog. As the dog grew older, it became increasingly obvious that that it was actually… a giant panda.

Not amused at how large and bear-like her once handbag-sized puppy had become, the girl took the panda back to Chatuchak where she was given a refund.

This just goes to show the wide range of animals that can be bought at Chatuchak. The last time I was there, I saw dogs, cats, monkeys, rabbits, turtles, all sorts. I’m no animal-rights activist so I’ll leave commenting on the conditions of the animals to those who are, but if you did fancy rearing a panda bear, there would likely be someone who could help you out.

While it may seem like a great idea in theory, giant pandas are endangered species and at up to 250 pounds, they could pull your head off without much trouble.