TEST 1: CREAM OR BLOOD?

Shaving without any cream left the guinea pig’s neck a bloody mess with redness and a burning sensation that lasted for thirty minutes. Verdict: Screw living in the woods and proving you’re a man. Go get yourself some shaving cream.

TEST 2: DOES THE CREAM MATTER?

Online, you’ll find plenty of experts claiming only a B20,000 brush made of Nepalese badger’s hairs is fit to apply shaving soap. But the real point of the cream is that your face needs to be wet at all times for a good shave. And since water tends to run off the face, cream is simply a convenient, not-too-messy way of keeping a film of smooth, glide-inducing liquid between the blade and your skin. We tried the boring Gillette can you’ll find in any 7-Eleven versus a fancier Nivea one. Honestly, there was no noticeable difference.

Verdict: Do use cream, but the brand hardly matters. Or just plain soap will do if you’re desperate.

TEST 3: ARE MORE BLADES BETTER?

Apart from inducing severe hemorrhaging, the shaving-without-cream test has its benefits. It puts razors to the ultimate test. And while two-blade razors seem to skip along the skin, yanking at the beard and making irritating, grating noises, their three-blade counterparts performed much better. Although real men chuckle at the multiplication of blades on razors (The Economist very seriously, and mathematically, projected that we will have 14 blades soon), we find they offer a much smoother shave.
Verdict: Less is not more. Go for three blades.

TEST 4: DO BRANDS MATTER?

In a blind test, we’re pretty sure we could tell the difference between two and three blades. But it’s difficult to tell the difference between a Gillette Mach 3 and some no name 3-blade alternative. Same with the two-blades. Word is, though, that the cheaper blades dull faster—although that calls for more testing.
Verdict: Cheap is surprisingly good.

TEST 5: WILL I GROW BOOBS?

Boldly going where no man has gone before, we also tested women’s razors on a man. We’re sad to report the devices’ pinkness did not imbue them with some magical feminine power. The male guinea pig’s (a guinea boar?) breasts did not grow, nor did his capacity to concentrate for stretches of more than five seconds.
Verdict: Women’s razors, apart from being cuter, are identical to the ones for guys.

This November, Bloomberg reported that Groupon.com was seeking venture capital that would value it at US$3 billion. That’s a nice chunk of change for a “deal of the day” website that sells discounted vouchers for (mostly) food and services. Their motto, “one ridiculously huge coupon each day, on the best things to eat, see, do and buy in your city,” has inspired a series of copycats in Thailand: Ensogo.com, O.ffer.us, Dealdidi.com and, most recently, Thaicitydeals.com, which launched Nov 29 (see The Players). Others, like Bonbondeals.com, are set to launch in a couple of weeks.

For us consumers, what’s not to like? The coupons are at least 50% off and can even reach 90% off. For businesses, these coupons promise instant cash and the possibility of new customers. But on the other hand, cheap coupons for us work out expensive for the business. For example, when a venue honors a B200 off coupon that you paid B100 for, it only gets B50, and the other B50 goes to the website’s commission (see how it Works above). So to offer 50% off, venues have to actually discount their product or service by up to 75%. These massive discounts have caused some to criticize Groupon as only appealing to failing businesses in desperate cash flow situations. Further, they say that services delivered in exchange for vouchers can be of low quality because venues are swamped by a sudden influx of coupon holders after the sale ends.

Gael Ovide-Etienne, Thaicitydeals founder and chairman, doesn’t think wanting cash means a business is failing, though. “We’re talking to a lot of new businesses. Do they need new customers? Of course. New places need clients. But we wouldn’t send our clients to bad businesses. We don’t want to damage our own business.”

As for being swamped by new customers, vouchers are usually made to last a long time, from three to six months, so that a business may get a busy a day or two after the sale but voucher owners should eventually get spread out over a longer period of time. Ian Soo, director of Bonbondeals, also says conditions can be built in, like mandatory three-day-prior reservations.

But the deal-a-day gold rush could soon level off. O.ffer.us hasn’t posted a deal since June. One wax salon owner told us he’d negotiated a commission-free deal with another website, a possible sign of desperation on the deal-a-day front. “Acquiring deals is expensive. There’s an investment,” says Ovide-Etienne. “You need a whole team of people. So a lot of players will release a new site but many will close down eventually.” What Ovide- Etienne foresees, however, is a segmentation of the market, where 12 play- ers could coexist feeding off different demographics: mass market, expats, “adventure travel-types,” etc. Soo, who wants to target both Thais and expats, is less optimistic: “I see three major players remaining within 12-18 months.” And despite being a latecomer, Soo is convinced Bonbondeals will be one of them.

Competition could also come directly from social networks. X2 Kui Buri recently held a Facebook auction for a B21,000 room, which sold for B6,300. With more and more people directly “liking” their favorite businesses on Facebook, merchants could increasingly choose to enter the deal-a-day fray without going through the middlemen. Wait, isn’t that just the return of good ol’ direct marketing? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Supanniga Home

Khon Kaen
Supanniga is actually fairly close to Khon Kaen’s bustling night market, but you’d never know. The garden, which has been lovingly tended to by the family’s matriarch, is a stunning maze of mango orchards, pebble alleys, rock sculptures and tall trees, overrun by climbing vines. The three villas go from cozy and Asian to modern and minimal, and if you want to head for the great outdoors, Khon Kaen is surrounded by national parks, reservoirs and even a few Khmer ruins (see 24 hours in Khon Kaen below).
Trippin’: A breakfast of kai krata—an egg fried with minced pork and little bread rolls stuffed with Chinese sausage, in the garde.
Rates start from 4,800 per night. 089-944-4880, www.supannigahome.com

Pressed for time? Here are some fun things to do if you only have a day to spend in Suan Phueng, Samui and Khon Kaen. 

The Hen (NEW)

Hua Hin, Prachuab Khirikhan
While several new Hua Hin resorts have a King Rama 6-7 architectural style to go with the new vintage trend, The Hen is the real deal. The former beach house belonging to relations of the royal family, has been transformed (by the same family) into a small, six-room boutique hotel right on Hua Hin beachfront. Attentive service and a wide selection of local food close to the hotel are added bonuses.
Trippin’: Le Chapon, its beachfront tea room, is perfect for romantic afternoon tea.
Rates start from B6,990. 032-531-331, www.thehenhuahin.com

Ping Nakara (NEW)

Chiang Mai
A latecomer to the revived Rama 7 trend, Ping Nakara is a faux-vintage hotel in Chiang Mai. A three-story all-white building is home to 19 exquisite rooms decked out as though you’re sleeping in a royal guestroom.
Trippin’: Nakara Spa promises high-class ayurverdic spa treatements created by a holistic expert who also works for the Mandarin Oriental.
Rates are from B4,163. 053-252-999, www.pingnakara.com

De Lanna (NEW)

Chiang Mai

As Chiang Mai’s latest mid-size hotel in the outer quarter, De Lanna is not a super luxurious nor an uber-stylish boutique accommodation. Instead the hotel blends its contemporary Lanna design into the existing neighborhood of old houses and temples. With a location close to the Sunday Walking Street but not actually on the walking street itself, you can be sure of your privacy as well as easy access to the center of town.
Trippin’:The location gives you best of both worlds: shopping streets and a historical temple. The hotel cafe is also a good spot to escape from the busy Sunday walking street and enjoy the view of busy street instead.
Rates start from B2,750. 053-326-278/9, www.delannahotel.com

Samsung NX100

• Its body has the perfect shape and size to fit snugly in your hand. The Sony is designed for the hand of a six-year-old.
• All the manual knobs and controls of a serious camera. The Sony offering is more like a cheap compact’s.
• An intuitive interface that makes good use of the aforementioned controls. The NEX-5 interface is the most poorly designed we’ve seen in ages.\

$949 from Best Denki, #05-01/05 Takashimaya Shopping Centre, 391 Orchard Rd., 6835-2855.
 

Sony NEX-5

• Compatibility with a wide range of lenses from Sony and Minolta. Samsung’s range is very limited.
• Comes with a fiddly external flash you have to screw in. The Samsung doesn’t even have a flash but it does have a standard flash bracket if you want to add one.
• Better low-light shooting capacity thanks to its optical stabilizer and slightly higher max ISO, plus better white balance.

$1,199 from Sony Style, #04-36/37/38 Paragon, 290 Orchard Rd., 6738-7970.

Verdict: The Sony comes out on top in just about every department except handling. Unfortunately, these marginal wins can’t make up for its catastrophic controls: Think Ferrari engine in a Yaris. The Samsung, on the other hand, retains all the controls of a classic camera, so that enthusiasts will get big single-lens reflex sensations (and results) without the bulk. Throw in a 30mm f/2 lens and the Samsung NX100 could be the coolest mirrorless camera since the Leica.

Medium: Digital photography printed on acid-free archival paper.

How did you get started on this? A year and a half ago, I was walking around and I saw a lot of young girls. I saw a lot of Johns [clients], policemen directing the traffic... I was curious about the police, at first. I took pictures of the girls and it proved difficult. The girls wanted their pimp to accompany them, which I refused. The police would harass me for taking pictures. So I started to take pictures of the underage male prostitutes. There were less pimps to deal with, which was easier.

So you’re saying the police was actively trying to ensure these goings-on remained a dirty little secret?
The problem is the money being taken by the police. The police will collect all the boys and girls every day and fine them B200 and then let them go. 40-50 kids every night. That’s a lot of money.

Did you pay the boys?
They are all paid. None of them would do it for free. They treated me as a client. I would explain this was for an art project. They would be fine with it, because they need money for drugs or glue, or to send back to the family. I paid them between B100-500.

Is this pedophile porn?
The perception is always going to be there. If you look back at my career, I do commercial things. I am who I am. I like certain things. But when it comes to being serious in terms of art, I want to correct problems. To be honest, the reactions are mixed. A lot of people loved it and think it’s a deserving project. Then there was a group of people who came asking where to pick the boys up and how much they should pay them. I’m not going to answer that. So, yes, some people fantasize over the boys but most find the project powerful. It drives them to tears.

Has this exhibition created some kind of reaction to solve this?
It’s hard to find people who want to change the situation. The Bangkok Post did not want to run the pictures because of their journalistic etiquette. If you go out at Sukhumvit and Nana, you see 9-year-old girls getting picked up every night. Nothing has changed.

Did you control the light in any way, or have the models pose?
I have them pose without their shirts because I want the audience to be faced with the reality of who they are. I didn’t intend to glamorize, but I have been doing fashion for a long time and it came out like that. I want my work to be documentary, to be journalism. I print it life-sized, around 5-feet tall. I want to create a dialogue between the audience and the boy, the buyer and the seller.

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