Rocket Yoga. Get There Faster.

Back in my year in India when I was looking for enlightenment one of the toughest part was the goddamn meditation. To sit quiet for a few minutes that’s OK. But for hours! They are saints back there in India, and I’m not. But there are ways to find inner peace, and one of those more active methods is blooming in Thailand: yoga, or more specifically: Rocket Yoga. Get to the fitness nirvana faster.

Larry Schultz? Says something? Argh you ignorant soul. This is Larry Schultz. And Larry Schultz recently brought his Rocket Yoga teachings to Bangkok for the first time. And guess where. At Bangkok’s top yoga studio Absolute Yoga Bangkok. An unintentional namesake of this site. There they find peace of mind by body activity, here by mental work …

Anyway, Larry Schultz has been teaching yoga for 30 years and has influenced yoga practitioners around the world. Bangkokian fellow yoga practitioners felt indeed lucky to have him here. In case you missed this express way to salvation, here’s a short cut. You might wanna give Rocket Yoga or any yoga for that a try. Yoga is booming here. Khun Ben and Khun David, participants at the workshop, sent us this little report with photos by Patrick Thorpe:

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

February 22, 2010 | Filed Under Culture & Arts, Health, Body & Mind, Sports & Fun | 1 Comment 

Apolitical Thai Hangover Causes & Cures

The real art these days in Thailand is to say something by not saying it. What cannot be said can still be said, just chose a careful wording. Some say though that some are still too cautious. As a trusted friend advised: “The boundaries have been stretched enough to allow you more space to roam.” Well, I don’t trust the “Thai spring” yet. There’s no Thai spring far and wide and I wouldn’t be surprised if all of a sudden reactionary hard-hitting forces take over again, killing all dissent and throwing the kingdom back into even darker ages. Common sense is hard to find in these divisive times. Just look what’s going on with our costly dowsing rods aka GT200.

They’re a con, a fraud, a crime, reports the Bangkok Post, but our honorable army defiantly insists they’re working. It’s encouraging to say the least that there’s an open conflict between the civilian and army leadership. Our dear prime minister, all diplomat, implicitly called the dowsing rods a fraud. Without actually being aware of it even our dear army chef confirmed they’re hardly working. The device had performed some 300 rounds successfully over the past few years, Anupong Paojinda was quoted as saying. Some 535 devices are used in the violence-plagued south. Do the math. Meaning, roughly every second device worked once over the past few years …

There’s actually no difference between a soldier trying to detect bombs holding a GT200 and a Big Mac … This is Thailand. If you dare to and have the backing you can just stand there and say something is true even though the whole world knows it is not. Anyway, this blatant mockery of sanity and reason makes it an even bigger pleasure to introduce Chef Tummy, an American and chef dedicated to adventurous Thai cooking who will hopefully become a regular writer on aB.com with his focus on Thai food culture. Trying to stay sane we have to have some more positive content on this site. Got a politics hangover? It’s good to stay away from politics – Thai politics! – once in a while. And Chef Tummy may have an answer or two:

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

February 19, 2010 | Filed Under Being Farang, Culture & Arts, Food & Drink, TTT - Top Thai Things, Travel & Tourism | 4 Comments 

Why Morals

Leaping into the morality debate ring, as someone recently wrote. Momma always told you to be nice and not to lie. There will be consequences, you were told. And indeed. You cheat, you get cheated. You betray. In a moment you’re the betrayed.

Morality, a key concept of Western thought, is a much more flexible thing over here in the East. Morals are more pragmatic, more Confucian, less rigid. What’s moral leadership for some here is a culture shock for others.

The more pleased I was to read a piece in The Nation titled Moral students projects rolls across 9 provinces; project that set aside a special quota for students with a record of volunteerism and strong morals to become “good students.”

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

February 1, 2010 | Filed Under Culture & Arts, Culture Shock, Politics, Society, The Thai Mind | 5 Comments 

The Ten Commandments Of Thai Politicians

I rarely do this, but this “field manual” for Thai politicians written by Prophessor Stephen B. Young for The Nation is worth to be mirrored in full. You may remember The Nation’s telling interview back in September last year with the man. Young introduces his helpful rules for Thai politicians with this:

“Having tasted of politics both east and west, and having shared many a story over the last 49 years with Thais in and out of government and politics and from Isaan villages to royal residences, it seems to me the current unrest in Thailand could be overcome by application of the following guidelines for Thai politicians:” (…)

Take a deep breath. It’s an again telling list. Explicitly mentioning to “beware farangs bearing condescending advice” as if we’d still be stuck in colonial times. Or Thailand as a potential Leitkultur? The old man has definitely gone Thai. And who’s that “established moral elite”?! But Young only lists eight helpful rules. So what two rules are missing to make it a uniquely Thai Decalogue? Maybe “Thou shalt first and foremost dismiss thouself” …

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

January 30, 2010 | Filed Under Culture & Arts, Culture Shock, History, Politics, Society | 9 Comments 

Making Way

“Thai people attend a religious floral offering Saturday, January 9th, 2010, during a religious ceremony at an old military prison, known as Tuk Din, in Bangkok, Thailand.”

“The prison believed to be haunted with the spirits of the dead, is being demolished to make way for several 20 story apartment blocks for senior military officials. The site has been used to hold and execute criminals for hundreds of years.”

Quoted from Daylife/AP. Making way for senior military officials … Nah, no better place for senior military officials? That’s what you call self-sacrifice for the sake and the good of the nation. Being at it, always wondered who will once live above the amazing Christian cemetery between Sathorn and Silom. Prime location.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

January 13, 2010 | Filed Under Culture & Arts, History, The Thai Mind | Leave a Comment 

“Phua Farang”: Demanding Daughter Duty

Just stumbled upon this site: Critical Asian Studies. A worthwhile read caught my eye: “Demanding Daughter Duty: Gender, Community, Village Transformation & Transnational Marriages in Northeast Thailand.” A study about the increased favorable acceptance of Isaan women with foreign partners. An in-depth study about a social phenomenon not known some years ago. From the site’s abstract:

The transnationalization of rural villages in the northeast region of Thailand through women’s transnational marriages is reconfiguring gendered familial obligations in the form of “daughter duty.” This article shows how economic and social remittances from dutiful village daughters who are married to foreign husbands connect local villages and communities to the global, bypassing Thai nation-state institutions and agencies that have inadequately addressed the disadvantageous position of Thailand’s Isaan region.

This transnational process depends on daughters’ (and mothers’) commitment to their care work and to their role as nurturers of the family, kin, schools, temples, and community – the community being seen as a familial extension in this matrilocal society. Women’s upward economic mobility and their adherence to valued filial roles contribute to the community’s increased favorable acceptance of women with foreign partners, leading to a greater number of transnational marriages.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

January 8, 2010 | Filed Under Culture & Arts, Society, The Thai Mind | 16 Comments 

Next Page →