Consumer Protection: Not Lost In Bangkok’s Probably Biggest Building

No kidding. That building is huge. The new home of Thailand’s Consumer Protection Board OCPB at Chaengwattana’s new Government Administrative Center up north. Kind of post-Soviet modernism. Massively impressive with its unending atrium.

The Election Commission’s in the same absolutely monstrous, still unfinished überbuilding. But my trade of the day was the Office of Consumer Protection, as I got screwed by a local farang insurance company. They play me. All I ask for is what I have in cold print.

The investigator there, a cute studentish lady with lovely John Lennon glasses, spoke very well English and the complaint was done within no time. If my case will be followed up is another story. Thailand & consumer protection a contradiction? I trust the bureau’s Labeling & Product Branch.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

May 19, 2009 | Filed Under Being Farang, Business & Economics, Just Do It! | 6 Comments 

Bangkok Poetization

Everyone’s a writer or an artist in a way. Everyone, at some point, kept a diary or dared a few strokes of the brush. But over time, busy with one’s own life of daily routine and obligations, the artist within dies. Arriving in Bangkok, many again feel that long gone artist in themselves.

To “materialize” one’s own enthrallment, something felt deeply. Thailand, or Bangkok for that, for many becomes a life-changing experience. Many dream of living in this never pausing carousel of decadence, downright commonness and darkly raffish milieu. Writers, painters, musicians dedicate work to their very own Krung Thep.

The artistic productivity of a city serves as a gauge of the city’s vibrancy. Most artists though have no stage and no gallery. They pursuit their art quietly for themselves, not even looking for a springboard to market their talent. I once met a Thai girl she designed the most amazing T-shirts.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

April 30, 2009 | Filed Under Being Farang, Culture & Arts, Just Do It! | 1 Comment 

Will’s Zen Of The Electric Guitar Elephant Dream

This is neither Kafka nor glorious Not The Nation, but proof that embattled Thailand may still fulfill anyone’s dream: Phuket Wan brings us the lovely story of a Melbourne man who …

You’ll have to read the whole thing. And there’s a message in Will’s dream of a jumbo solo. Kind of like irresistible Zooey Deschanel’s blurry-picture-taking-while-running in Jim Carrey’s Yes Man.

Phuket Wan adequately asks: What’s the appropriate rock song to play on the back of an elephant? Over to you. And don’t be shy. Share your weirdo fantasy. Remember, anything goes in Thailand.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

April 23, 2009 | Filed Under Being Farang, Just Do It!, Travel & Tourism | Leave a Comment 

Career Jump? It’s Franchise Show Time

If you’re one of those people beginning the morning in a largely lethargic manner not really knowing if you still like what you’re doing for a living, here’s a possible loophole how to get restarted:

Open up a franchise business. As fate would have it the Business Opportunity Franchise & Better Shop Retail Show is coming to town. More than 700 new businesses are on display.

Showing and inspiring you how to run a business without a steep learning curve, be it a franchise for a restaurant, car care, convenient store business or international franchise for education, you name it.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

February 16, 2009 | Filed Under Business & Economics, Just Do It!, Property & Investment | 2 Comments 

Detox Revisited

Our early readers may remember our early piece Colonary Treats In Bangkok: Detox Yourself. Well, we’ve done the hard research work again, as it was time for another yearly detox cleanse, I mean, a colonic irrigation. Rejuvenating, to say the least.

You may sniff at it, but it just feels ecstatic having your guts cleaned. You feel lighter, healthier, happier. This time we tested two venues. The upmarket HydroHealth at Erawan – and the more rudimentary Yanhee hospital.

Life in Bangkok can be stressful, tiring, polluting. Sometimes you eat stuff you regret eating the very next minute. And some of this stuff gets stuck right in your innermost. Flush it out. My wife tells me benefits are not medically proven. What do I know. I just feel better.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

January 11, 2009 | Filed Under Health, Body & Mind, Just Do It! | 1 Comment 

Apple, Strawberry & Prune

Not, those are no nicknames of local belles. But something’s in the air … The unique scents of apple, strawberry and prune lingering about … And what’s that strange bubbling sound? Shishas, hookahs, water pipes … You find them everywhere these days in Thailand. People chuffing fruity tobacco, herbs and such.

No weed or dope is stuffed into those pipes you’ll not only see along beaches where backpackers relax on triangular oriental pillows. In Bangkok’s hip hookah venues places you can relax on chic large pillows and canopy beds along with oriental singsong …

Even the large established luxury hotels, such as Chiang Mai’s The Mandarin Oriental, offer the cooling, tantalizing water smoke. And you don’t have to be a smoker to enjoy. Well, maybe better don’t inhale – and here is where you get that Arabian feeling in Bangkok and else:

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

January 5, 2009 | Filed Under Food & Drink, Just Do It!, Nightlife & Entertainment, TTT - Top Thai Things, Travel & Tourism | 3 Comments 

Next Page →