Navigating The Bangkok Night
The Bangkok Night is so vast and diverse, spread across so many different districts of this gigantic Asian metropolis with so many bars, night clubs, lounges, discos, KTVs, snooker places, “Entertainment Complexes,” music venues, street stalls, night markets, “special services” massage places, cinemas and shopping centers, from tiny to huge, from low-end and very cheap
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The Vongthip Letter Dec 09
A Royal Happy Birthday: HM the King’s 82nd birthday on 5/12/09 would be the best ever celebration organized by the Thai government for the country’s most beloved king. The nine days “birthday party” would be indeed a warmly welcomed respite from the “political madness” that the people of Thailand have been subjected to in the
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Calvino Is Back
Every city has a dark side. Hardly anyone paints the dark underbelly of Bangkok more vividly than Christopher G. Moore, whose latest Bangkok novel The Corruptionist just hit the shelves. 466 pages of dark Bangkok. I had a word with Chris about his new book, his work and Bangkok. Most expats here are familiar with
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1 + 1 = 3
A year ago, a few days before HM the King’s 81st birthday, Thailand was in the hands of reactionary yellow shirts who saw themselves on a holy mission to save the Thai nation and crown at whatever cost from doomsday. Hundreds of thousands of tourists paid a heavy price, not to mention the losses Thai
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The Ultimate Thai Ringtone
Thanks to good friend Andy who, while shooting a film upcountry, came across this so typical Thai sound. And caught it. He played around with it, cleaned up background noise, edited it – et voilà, here are the MP3 and MP4 ringtones for your phone. Says Andy that recently in a Bangkok taxi his phone
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Top Thai iPhone Apps
An Indian once told me with the cutest of accents: “Women. Who can live with them. Who can live without them.” Same applies to the iPhone. Who doesn’t have one yet. And if you don’t have one yet, how can you get along without. The phone’s complex simplicity is astonishing, not to mention the huge
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Samak R.I.P.
A year ago he was still going strong, Samak Sundaravej, dinosaur politician, cook, former prime minister. Liver cancer. That’s how life can be. Our humble little tribute to the controversial firebrand is a video below I shot not too long before his demise. A timely reminder that the old guard dies off slowly and there’s
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George Talks
He’s an institution: George, founder and owner of ThaiVisa.com, Thailand’s probably most popular website among foreigners with its unique forum. George is the brain behind the success, but success invites envy and jealousy, so not all you read about ThaiVisa is milk and honey. I recently had a talk with George and here is what
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Walking The Bhikkhuni Path
The cultural tradition of this country has Buddhism at the heart, making Thailand truly unique in my eyes. Everyday, just by speaking Thai, I get reminded of my belief. But like all things beautiful when they become mundane and perfunctory, we stop taking notice and we stop to appreciate. The meanings become dissipated. This is
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Red Propaganda
Here’s lovely Puea Thai MP Khun Visaradee Techateerawat, one of a few young Thai political activists – who interviews three red protagonists on the coup d’état that took place some three years ago on September 19th, 2006. Khun Visaradee’s simple question: Does democracy exist in Thailand today. Sure, it’s red material, but still, sometimes you
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