My Lil Brother busting a groove

My Brothers Keeper

G-Money: "Am I my brother's keeper?"
Nino Brown: "YES I AM!"

(Nino Brown then shoots G-Money in the head)

- From the movie New Jack City

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Last Sunday, I met up with Marie and I decided that we should watch The Bra Boys. I convinced her that it was a romantic comedy centralised around the themes of family, brotherly love and about Australian surfing culture.

No, I am kidding, of course I didn't say that!

The Bra Boys is a documentary currently showing at many of those indie type cinemas like Dendy and The Palace. The story is centered around the four Abberton Brothers - Koby, Jai, Sunny and the other one (kinda like the third tenor who know one really knows).

The primary focuses is on the suburb Maroubra and the group of people know as the "Bra Boys" which hang around Maroubra beach, which the Abberton brothers are a part of. "Bra" is short for Maroubra in case you didn;t know.

The movie does go into the world of the Bra Boys through the Abberton brothers. They are surf heads, in that their whole life is centered around surfing. Sunny and Koby compete on the world stage and the brothers travel the world looking for the best waves.

Koby Abberton - Back

However, their world comes crashing down when a violent standover man Anthony Hines threatens Jai Abberton and to rape his girlfriend. Hines pulls a gun on Jai, and in the ensuing struggle Jai manages to shoot Hines with the gun. Jai then is charged with murder and faces a maximum of 30 years jail time. Koby refuses to give evidence against his brother and to co-operate with the police and is charged as an accessory. He faces 15 years jail. If you want to know the rest, see the actual movie.....punk!

Are the Bra Boys a gang?

The doco goes to great pains to reposition the group to not be a gang.I have tried to avoid mentioning the word "gang" til now as it has negative connocations. But let's not kid ourselves here.

The Bra Boys have gotten a lot of publicitiy from fighting, rioting and the notorious incident where they fought like 100 police at the Police Xmas party. I believe and this is my own opinion, while the Bra Boys are not exactly a gang they do have gang-like elements.

They are not into committing crime like drug dealing, and shootings but the fact that they do get into terrotorial fights and the movie does also depict the Bra Boys defending their terrority against outside gangs trying to invade Maroubra in the 70's and 80's. If that is not a gang, then give me one of these "2053" Bra Boy tattoos!

That's another factor - the tattoos. if you have been a member of the Bra Boys for 5-1o years and done your time as a member, you get approval from the older boys to get a tatt. So they'll have a massive "bra boys" tatt on their back, on the familar tatt of "my brothers keeper" or the postcode of "2053".

The movie is a bit of a sellout of the Bra Boys. And they are also come up with crap about how the Bra Boys had an influence in stopping the race riots in Cronulla by meeting up with these Biker lebbos in Brighton. Apparently they reached out to their "connections" and played a role in calming down the race riots. Yeah they did a bit, but I hardly think that influenced any one.

Conclusion

Before I forget, the story is narrated by Russell "put the telephone down" Crowe. He chimes in every now and then but I'm surprised he actually took up this role. He doens't add any credibility to the movie.

The movie wasn't that fascinating and didn't really tell me anything about the Bra Boys that i didn't already know. The one good thing they had was awesome surf shots and they depict how crazy the Abberton brothers are when they surf.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10. Wait for the DVD.

I'm out like Biker Lebbos in Brighton,

DJ Ho.

This is how we roll

In the summer of 2003/2004, which some might call the summer of Jackson gate/boobgate, there were two young interns sitting next to each other in a workspace booth crammed with files, office workers rushing around them, and the constant buzz of telephone calls. These office rookies quickly became friends cause they were both freshmen, knew absolutely nothing about working, and loved to talk loudly about boob gate.

During that summer, they both worked their proverbial behinds off, ate lunch together, and knocked back countless drinks. They would even SMS each other to find out what the other was wearing to the casual friday to ensure that either of them did not turn up in an outfit unsuitable for work. At the end of that summer they parted ways, promising to keep in contact. One went back to Canberra to work for the next 3 years, and the other stayed with the company in Sydney.


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Fast forward to 2007.

My friend Gurav got a 3 month transfer to work in Sydney so I met up with him last night. We decided to meet up for a couple of drinks. He's actually originally from here but he hadn't been out in Sydney for a while. Well he hadn't been out with DJ Ho as his tour guide. So this is how DJ Ho rolls.

Here is a snapshot of the places I took him to :

1. Verandah Bar @ Martin Place: All business types inside. Nice bar but too crowded.

2. MacDonalds - pitt stop for food.

3. Ryan's Bar @ Australia square: Packed. This chick asked me to buy a drink for her friend. I was like what the ####. She accused me of knocking it over when I hadnt even walked past her. Apparently, I needed to be calmed down cause I was not cool about it. I told her to try it on the next guy in the line. In fact I wouldn't even buy her a drink under normal circumstances. I guess us Asians must all look alike :P

4. Opera Bar @ Circular Quay: $5.50 for beers on tap? I guess the view aint too bad.


5. Industrie @ Pitt St: Chilled out music but this place is too small and narrow.

6. Bar 333: This place was dead so we didn't stay there

7. Privilege @ George St: This place was going off. Played some old school classic rnb/hip hop. I got there as the place turned into a nightclub (yes!) but as the $3 drinks stopped (nooo!).

7. Bungalow 8 @ King St Wharf: Under normal circumstances I would not go to King St. This is exactly why: The small aussie bouncer introduced us to his big black "friend". The "friend" proceeds to interrogate us with "where have you been tonite? How many drinks have you had? What are you doing here?". This is the kind of attitude I don't need. Eventually we got in and paid the ridiculous prices for drinks.


8. MacDonalds for second pit stop to refuel on food

9. Cohi Bar @ Darling Harbour: This place was dead but since we had walked 20 mins to get there we stayed for a drink. Upstairs was just empty.

10. Tank nightclub @ Circular Quay: Refused entry as we didn't have stamps and the line was not moving at 1.30am in the morning. I used to walk into this place with no issues and now there is a line?

11. Pavillion Hotel: Again, this place was dead and we didn't want to get stabbed, so we quickly left.

12. Equilibrium: They were closing up so it was completely empty. Disappointing.

13. Scruffy Murphys: We got refused into this place? Are you kidding me. This is the dirtiest place on earth!

14. Paddy Maquires: Closed.

15. Harry's Hotdogs: You can always count on a Harry De Wheels Hotdog with chilli, peas, and smothered in mustard and tomato sauce to hit the spot at 2.30 in the morning.

16. 7-Eleven for a slurpie.


I'm out like introducing patrons to the big black friend,

DJ Ho.

I'm back!

I'm bringing blogging back, you fans don't know how to act


Local guide lying on his back on the elephant as it drinks water

I came back on Monday and it feels like a world away. I thought when I was travelling I would be blogging every couple of days and telling you about my trip, but you get so busy and want to do so much, you kinda neglect the blog. Well back, with a vengenance.

Chiangmai continued

The last time I updated my blog was during my first day in Chiangmai. Chiangmai was really cool. One of my favourite places on the trip. it's got this real hippy vibe to it - think of Bob Marley hairdo's, weed, hill tribe villages, and just a chilled out environment.

Highlights of Chiangmai would be the two day trek that we did in the jungle/mountains. We rode a elephant and my guide was off his nut - he was high! Smoking a joint. This guy is controlling a 3 tonne elephant and he actually fell off the elephant and rolled down this hill for about 5 metres. He was bleeding slightly but wasn't fazed and hopped back on the elephant. I'm thinking *&%^ - what kind of guide have I got? Turned out to be pretty cool experience.


Tim riding the beast

Then we trekked for 3 hours to the top of this mountain. It wasn't particularly difficult, just a lot of up hill walking, crossing over lakes and little man made bridges, around rocks. We had a pitstop at this waterfall, and I thought what the hell - I'll jump in for a quick shower - it was freezing! But refreshing.

At the top of the mountain was the Lahu village tribes people. There were dogs and chickens running riot all through this village. Really outback stuff - I had another cold shower and next door was grunting pig. A very unique experience - you know your alive when that water hits you. It was such a cool experience sitting on top of a village, getting back to basics and sleeping in a bamboo hut.

Our trekking guide was a legend - he would break out into these random laughs "ahahaha" and made the whole trip so enjoyable. He even made me a slingshot which the Australian customs people confiscated (nazi's!). We stayed up and just talked into the night and the hill tribe people played some traditional folk songs and then broke into Bob Marley "no woman no cry" and some contempoary tracks.
Left to right - young trek guide, main trek guide

Next day, we trekked for a couple more hours and then stopped for another quick dip in another waterfall. that was even more freezing! Then we went white water rafting and that was pretty cool. Our boat got caught in the rocks on a lil drop and water just kept flooding in. It was unreal experience white water rafting along the rapids of Chiangmai.

After that we hopped on some rafts made up of bamboo. Hollow logs of bamboo that were tied together! Somehow they managed to stay afloat and I actually got up and rowed/guided the boat for a bit.

If you are ever in Thailand, I highly recommend you check out Chiangmai. It was my favourite place in Thailand - better than Bangkok and Phuket. The two day trek was perfect. Average fitness is required for the trek. Get away from the heat and craziness of Bangkok, all the tourists and dirty old men in Phuket.


Julie's guesthouse - funky, cheap and excellent people. Best guesthouse in Chiangmai!

Oh, and i forgot to mention on our last night there, Tim and I went all out and feasted at this restaurant. We ordered like 5 or 6 dishes and couple of beers, attempting to spend up big in this restaurant, yet the bill only got to like 400 baht - which is $13 AUD. Ridiculous how cheap Chiangmai and Thailand is. Our accomodation at Julie's guesthouse was $2AUD a night in a dorm! Cheap as bro. We upgraded to our own room with hot showers and spent big - $3AUD a night! I've already

The only sad this about Chiangmai is that the people in the tribal village are not allowed to enter the city. If they do go to the city they will get arrested. They must remain in the village as they are nomadic people who have orginally come over the border from countries like Burma. Children under the age of 15 are allowed to have a Thai passport and can go to schools and get regular jobs.

Tourism has changed the tribal villages. They have ipods, mobiles, solar panels providing power and beer! I was initially a bit reluctant to visit them, as tourism changes their ways. Snapping pictures, pointing at them, invading their space. But on the flipside, tourism brings in money for these people and allows them to sustain a decent lifestyle and pay for things like schooling for their children. Its hard to find that balance between being a tourist and respecting their ways and letting them be. The more exposure they have to tourism and the outside world, the more their ways will change.

Oh, I love Chiangmai!

Sunrise at the top of the Lahu village