Maseratisti
I’ve mentioned Apple’s uncle Preecha before. He’s the man who made a very good living in polymers and has used some of his funds to create a car collection for himself; his most recent addition, the Mercedes R171 roadster, was featured on this site back in February. Today, we finally got to see the rest of his local car collection — he swung by in a black Mercedes AMG sedan this afternoon, and after a brief stop at a coffee house for drinks and cakes, we headed for the main event.
Preecha owns a warehouse here in town which looks like it could be outfitted as a full-fledged mechanic’s shop. It has a large shop floor with bay doors, a glass-enclosed floor office and an upper level with still more rooms. For his purposes, it’s a glorified garage that holds all seven of his locally-stored sports cars. The definite pinnacles of the collection are the four Maseratis, each a rare model from the 1990s, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, and all of which are original, authentic biturbo machines.
He also owns an Audi S6 which he’s had specially modified by SMS, adding about 60 horsepower; his new Mercedes R171 roadster with its sweet red interior, and the aforementioned AMG E-class with a supercharged V6. Five of the seven cars are black. More pictures of the cars after the jump.
What’s This? Somewhat Current Video Game Reviews?
As I mentioned a few posts back, lately I’ve rented a few video games from the local video store. The way I figure it, it’s better to spend $5 or $6 and find out a game is crap rather than drop $50-$60 and find out a game sucks.
I initially rented Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 (on the recommendation of Chief Oddball), and that was a lot of fun…for about an hour. You see, as soon as I embarked on my first real mission – to save Brad, the bald dude you meet not too long into the game – the Xbox reported an error trying to read the disc. I took the game out, wiped it down, and tried again – to no avail. The game was damaged (one of the potential hazards of renting…or buying used, for that matter). So the game went back the next day (got a free game rental out of it once I explained the situation, at least) and instead rented Bullet Witch.
Bullet Witch is the latest 3rd-person action/adventure offering from Atari for the Xbox 360. In it, mankind – as a result of both natural and man-made disasters ocurring over a number of years – is on the brink of extinction. The world is now populated by all sorts of foul undead beasties, who delight in murdering any remaining humans in cold blood. You play as Alicia, a slender woman with a habit of wearing a very tight bodice as her primary clothing (of course). Alicia’s body is host to some sort of demon (or some such thing) that empowers her with magic (and that also talks to her from time to time by making the edges of the screen go pink and swirly), which she can use to fight off the undead. She also comes equipped with a sword-gun kind of thing (which immediately brings to mind Squall Lionheart of Final Fantasy VIII and his gun-sword) that also supposedly looks like a broom (since she’s a witch and all). It doesn’t really, though; all it has are a few spokes protruding out the butt of the gun, which I suppose are meant to evoke the bristles of a broom. Regardless, it still looks nothing like a broom. But that’s hardly a gripe, especially when you consider the other things in this game you can complain about.
A Day in Ya’an
Today was quite an adventure for us here in China. After staying at our friends’ (very nice) apartment in XinJin yesterday and basically working most of the day, we set out in the evening for Ya’an, an old-fashioned town about an hour from here that is home to China’s single largest population of Pandas — a world-renowned location.
We arrived last night and had a late dinner. Since we’re in Sichuan province, the local culinary specialty is called “hot pot.” Basically this involves a large table with a gas burner in the center, upon which a large stoneware pot is placed, then filled with broth and all manner of ingredients. The contents are brought to a boil and everyone partakes in what’s being cooked inside. Last night, the particular variety of hot pot that we enjoyed was like a big chicken soup: Chicken-based broth filled with tons of wild mushrooms local to the region. Lest you think it was simply chicken broth, allow me to add that an entire chicken was cooked in the pot as well. It was quite simply delicious.
Afterwards we spent the night at what is probably Ya’ans nicest hotel, an extremely posh and modern place — one of the nicest hotels I’ve stayed in, even. They had very fast high-speed Internet, a huge spa bathtub (the first bathtub I’ve seen since I’ve been in Asia, actually), fantastic furnishings, and a tremendous array of buttons, switches and electronic convenience doodads. To gain entry to the room you just waved a keycard at the door, and there was a console outside with a bunch of telltale indicators on it that were linked to switches inside the room. You could indicate that you didn’t want to be disturbed, or that you needed something, or a bunch of other situations that I didn’t have time to investigate.
Things Seen on the Road in Hat Yai
When you venture to countries in Asia, you typically find that English has invaded popular culture, if only in some small way. Here, English words, phrases or acronyms are everywhere, particularly on cars. If you think our cars in America have a lot of badges — with identification markings for make and model, engine size, optional equipment, trim level, etc. — then you should see the cars here. There are badges, stickers, and decals galore on almost every car, letting you know all the great things about this particular model. GOA body. EBD. Power Steering. Direct Injection. Turbo Diesel. Even decals to let you know the car has air bags!
Then there are the stickers the owners add themselves. Along with some other curiosities, here’s a miniature photo tour of the roadways in Hat Yai.
The Lexus RX equivalent in Thailand — which I often call “The Official Car of Naples, FL” because there are so damn many — is very exclusive and expensive. I captured this one parked just down the street from Apple’s home.
I didn’t know they had Cherokees in Thailand. This is the first, and only, Jeep that I’ve seen here.
No, the owner didn’t add this sticker. “Catalytic Champ” is actually the model name of this Mitsubishi!
This Daihatsu Mira was “Born to be Rugby.” It was also stuffed into the tiniest parking space I’ve ever seen.
The best one of all was unfortunately not captured by my camera. It was a slammed pickup truck of some make or another, whose rear window sported a decal of a nitrous bottle with the ubiquitous “NOS” logo on it. Right below that — yes, on the window — was a huge decal stating “Power Steering.” The placement hilariously made the two seem related! (You’d be able to whip off a turn pretty damn fast with NOS-injected power steering, d00d.)
