The blog of Irina Bulmaga

Friday, 19 April 2013

Pattayan Sun

The sun is shining so bright- every day- brighter and brighter! It has warmed me and I am simply glowing!
Thailand has something special- it's not only the hot weather, nice beaches and kind people- it's like here the time flows differently- quicker and with fewer stress.
I am so happy that I am here- I strongly recommend to everyone to come to Thailand- it's an unbelievable experience!
Here are some photos:

As about the tournament, I managed to win yesterday from a young WFM from China. You can see the game here:

I play against an unrated Indonesian with a 2384 performance today. I hope to have a good game :)

P.S. A big interesting photo report with the rating favorites of the tournament to follow! ;)

Wednesday, 17 April 2013

Walking Street

My Thailand experience continues and I am simply thrilled!
It is a pity that the tournament doesn't go that well too, I made 2 draws against some weaker opponents, but I guess that one can't have it all. I try my best during the round, but it seems that draws have been the best lately...
I went on the famous "Walking Street". It is so lively and full of "walking" people :))) There are a lot of bars,cabarets,pubs and clubs- all kind of places to make one feel good.
Some friends of mine and I went to a rock pub with a Thai band playing live. They were amazing! We had a lot of fun listening to them :D Here is a video of the band and some photos:

Walking Street!

Some Octopus perhaps? It was really nice!

"The Hungarians"

Carting you say?

Welcome to Paradise

Levente Vajda, being among the leaders of the tournamnet with 4,5p/5

Czebe Attila

Enjoying a ride on the local cab :)

xoxo from Pattaya! ;)

Monday, 15 April 2013

So far so cool

I am in love with Thailand!
There've been played 2 rounds and I've got 2p out of 2. It's a double round today, so there's another game to follow in the afternoon.
I went out for diner with some friends yesterday night and it was very cool! The city is only getting livelier at night. We tried some thai food and this time I didn't have any "chilli experience" :D I also tried a thai beer- "Chang" and it's actually not bad at all- I liked it more than the Romanian ones.
When returning to the hotel, we found ourselves on a street with bars called "Roxy", "Red Light",etc-all pretending to offer massage... I guess it was something else meant :))) It was quite funny to look at the "ladies" standing in front of all that bars and guessing weather they are men or women :D
A torrential rain caught us still walking then and when we finally got to our hotel we were looking like we took a shower all dressed up :)))
Here's the game I played this morning:

Thailand can't be compared to anything I've seen before. It's an unique experience and I am so excited that I still have 9 days to enjoy it!

xoxo from Pattaya ;)

Sunday, 14 April 2013

Thailand

Thailand... I don't have enough words to describe how much I like it! You can judge by yourself- here are some pictures:

Pattaya City

Our hotel's inside garden

Local traffic

Irene Sukandar, my roommate :)

Dusit Thani Resort- the place we're staying at

The tournaments starts today, at 3.30 pm local time. I hope to play as good as I feel here :D

xoxo from Pattaya ;)

Saturday, 13 April 2013

The chilli experience

There've been some very interesting 36 hours!

I am writting from Pattaya- a nice resort in Thailand, but the story begins in Bucharest.
I am in Thailand for a chess tournament-the 13th BCC Open- you can see the official site of the event here: http://bangkokchess.com/events-calendar/13th-bcc-open-2013 I decided to visit London on my way there- a quite weird decision if to think that it was on the opposite direction with my destination :))), but I definitely don't regret it. I had an amazing day in London- went for a ride on the London Eye, walked around through the rain- yeah, raining in London-what a surprise!

Enjoying a ride on the London Eye

All in all, I had a really nice time in London! I went back to the airport afterwards and slept during my whole 11 hours flight to Bangkok :))) I didn't even feel how all that time passed!

Arriving in Bangkok, I was very worried about the "visa procedure", but it turned out to be just a formality- so I easily passed the passport control (btw, the woman who put a stamp in my passport was wearing a Hawaian shirt :)))) and went for my bus to Pattaya. It took me about 2 hours to get to the hotel, where I was welcomed by the organizer- Mr. Kai Tuorila. I was shocked when I saw the hotel- there's a garden in the lobby- a huuuge one and the room is really nice. There were all kind of unusual fruits waiting for me there; yes "were" is the right word, because I've already eaten all of them :)))

I went with some local friends of my roommate-Irene Sukandar- for diner in the city and I had "the chilli experience". I was eating some rice with all kinds of sea food- being really proud of myself (everyone was wondering how I-an European- can eat such a spicy food) until I tried a soup- it tasted really nice- the problem came when I tasted a green thing that turned out to be chilli- I literally started to cry, my tears seemed unstoppable and I thought that my brain will be blown away :)))) I somehow survived and I hope that "the chilli experience" will be the only thing to cry about during my stay in Thailand!

Some photos from Pattaya will follow the next days, until then- here you can see the starting list of players: http://chess-results.com/tnr94564.aspx?lan=1

Gone for some more fruits :)))

xoxo from Thailand ;)

Wednesday, 10 April 2013

Control

Control is an illusion. We never really have it- the Earth makes a slight spin and things change.
People seek controlling big amounts of money, of information, controlling other people, but we can't actually entirely control ourselves- how can we control other things and other people?
It's a very familiar feeling to want someone to say something to you or to behave in a certain way, but you can't make it happen. It's sad, but it is also interesting, because it comes by surprise every time it somehow happens...
It wouldn't be so nice when somebody would ask you to go out on a date, or would invite you to a tournament, or would simply tell you how great you are if it's you who made them do or say it. It's charming to never know what to expect from the others. It makes life thrilling. The thing is that surprises can be tiring and too challenging sometimes...
There are moments when I wish I could just go to a mountain chalet for a week and have nothing to keep under control but myself.
All in all, there are things that don't depend on us and we can't blame ourselves for losing the touch from times to times.
Life is unpredictable, people are unpredictable.
You never know what waits for you tomorrow...