THE KORIER - International Culture, Binge Stories and Humour

The Wicked Bus

Riding a bus in Laos

by Dan Alexander

BANGKOK - We got back to Muang Sing after our trek early afternoon. The four of us had decided we weren't gonna stay another night. So the plan was to catch a local bus at 4pm to Luang Namtar, where we were to stay one night, and then make an epic journey south to Mong Noi the next day.

Seeing as we had a few hours to kill we decided to have a spot of lunch. We got a table in a busy restaurant along the main street and ordered some food and some beer. Half way through our beer Dale noticed a group of women we happened to very interested in talking to...

Thank Fuck The Olympics Is Over

BEIJING - After a solid month of the whole population of this totally bonkers yet strangely charming country going full on spaz-out crazy for China's Olympic Heroes in every event from shooting to some other lame shit they cleaned up in, the madness seems to have finally settled down.

Boring People You'd Never Listen To Get On The News

Some Hippies Have Their Moment In The Sun; Corporal Punishment Awaits

OLYMPICS COVERAGE COVERAGE - Footage showing some a middle aged goofball with his surprisingly attractive girlfriend has appeared on the BBC website's main page. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7558031.stm

Sporting their customised t-shirts and looking like fall-guy characters from a teen film, they perform a rhythm-free chant and then get dragged away by police. You'd think they'd have came up with something better for the cameras. "This is a peaceful protest", our balding nobody protagonist yells to the camera and the watching world. And to the blue-uniformed Chinese, who between them probably know twelve English words and are wondering "what the hell do our girls see in these guys?"

Build Em Up To Knock Em Down: The Western Media's Coverage Of The Olympics

The Korier Presents A Blog Covering The Coverage Of The Olympics

OLYMPICS COVERAGE COVERAGE - It's starting. For months, I had been reading fairly sycophantic coverage of the Olympics in the Western media. From the Economist's "The World in 2008" China Special journalistic rim-job to coverage throughout big media full of words like "extravaganza", the press was building up the country and it's remarkable economic growth, but now the headlines are gradually taking a different form...

Film Review: Aliens Vs Predator 2

Counting the cliches

by Jack McLoughlin

There are two possible explanations for this film.
1) This film, as a dead-cert money maker, was never about the script and a simple plot was thrown together to tease you like a Korean schoolgirl before the Predator starts kicking ass. Possibly with this in mind, the writer, Shane Salerno (forget that name) has produced a horrendous litany of cliches that makes Eraser look like subtle artistry.

2) The cliche-ing is so painfully obvious that one must consider: is Salerno (remember that name) tastelessly using the glorious concept of Aliens and Predators fucking with each other's shit to poke fun at the sci-fi action genre in general?

I will explain, numbering the cliches as I go...

WUHAN: WOO HOO

The Mission from Bangkok, Thailand to Wuhan, China

by Jack McLoughlin

WUHAN - After the Songkran daytime drunken water-fight madness in Bangkok, I showered, ate some moderately tasty and moderately filling Thai food and fearfully looked out at the crowds between my hostel and the main road. As Rambuttri road was closed off to traffic, I had to get my bags on to the main road to get a taxi and even though it was by now 8pm and dark, the streets were still rammed full of people, by now mostly Thais, totally drunk, soaked head to foot and covered in clay. I didn’t want to get on the plane and travel for eleven hours – then meet someone from my new job – looking like I’d just spent the day painting a kitchen and the night on a couch.

Watching Football in Asia: the Differences.

by Jack McLoughlin

KUNMING, CHINA - If you can find a bar willing to show the game with working satellite TV and someone to watch it with during their Saturday night, watching the English Premier League in an Asian bar is very different to watching it in an English pub.

THE DMZ: the Gnarliest Place on Earth

A day at Korea's "demilitarised zone"

By Jack McLoughlin

SEOUL - Bill Clinton famously described the DMZ area Panmunjom as the “scariest place on Earth”. It isn't scary; B.J. Bill has evidently never walked around Russia at night. However, the De-Militarised Zone is so strange that one needs to evoke American stoner slang to effectively describe it: it is one seriously gnarly place, dude.

Jimjilbang Uncensored

A night in a Korean sauna

By Daneel Starr

SEOUL - Have you ever wanted to spend the night in Seoul, South Korea? Have you ever wanted to spend the night in Seoul, South Korea with only 2 quid in your pocket for accommodation? It's possible but you have to be ready to spend the night in a Korean sauna (jimjilbang) surrounded by naked men.

A Piss Up in a (Government Owned) Brewery

...And the consequences

By Jack McLoughlin

BEIJING (September 2007) - I WAS in a foul mood by the time we reached Inchon harbour in West Korea. We'd made three stops on the Subway so that Daneel, suffering more than I from the previous night’s binge, could avoid vomiting onboard. We met a friend Alan, who told me - and a visibly unwell Daneel - to get our tickets quickly or they wouldn't let us on the boat. We paid and sat down, waiting for the queue to shrink before we joined.