August 26, 2006
Body Snatchers In Bangkok
2006-08-26 International Herald Tribune Por Tek Tung - The Body Snatchers Fighting for a Gory Prize - A Race to the Death in Thailand They are not rewarded with money,...Read this update
July 12, 2006
A Global Refugee
I receive an email from the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand today. This will definitely be my next book to read. Paiboon Publishing presents "A Chameleon's Tale: True Stories of...Read this update
May 04, 2006
HI Sukhumvit Hostel
Just so you don't think I drowned in the Sangkren waters of Thailand, I spent the next few days in a great new 38 bed hostel called HI Sukhumvit in...Read this update
April 15, 2006
Emails From Leila
WOW what a city. BANGKOK is alive. It is New year for them amd they celebrate with water. The streets are alive with people walking arround with water pistols and...Read this update
Sangkren Water Festival
Day before yesterday was New Years in Lao. Yesterday was New Years in Thailand, although the celebration continues for several days in these countries. We get it again! Leila took...Read this update
March 29, 2006
Thai Cooking School
At the Smile Guesthouse I attend cooking school. A Dutch couple and a German girl and I each have our own "station" with a wok sitting on a gas burner....Read this update
Tha Ton
Supuat drove me to Tha Tan...right on the Thai-Burma border directly north of Chiang Mai to see several minority groups, Lisu, Lahu, Akha and Longnecks, that live there. Last...Read this update
March 25, 2006
Faithful Tuk Tuk Driver
Nice to have someone faithful to me. I trust Supoat, in his 50's, with soft face and warm bright eyes. I call him when I need him to drive...Read this update
Breakfast at Smile Guesthouse
I have changed hotels. I am now at the brand new Bau-Tong Lodge with free WiFi that is down little soi 3 off Loi Kroh...for half the cost of the...Read this update
Northern Style Thai Massage
This last week I found a very small, unassuming massage shop...very simple understated Thai Lanna-style salon with rough dark stained wood...a couple couches draped with yellow ochre and red umber...Read this update
March 19, 2006
Chiang Mai Felt Like Home?
Have been here three weeks and Chiang Mai did feel like home for awhile...just long enough to get oriented and find the good places to eat. I spent all...Read this update
March 16, 2006
Diamond Jubilee Of His Majesty
His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand will celebrate his Diamond Jubilee in Bangkok in June 2006. The King of Thailand is one of the most highly respected spiritual leaders...Read this update
Wat Chedi Luang
The oldest (700 years) and most interesting temple in Chiang Mai that had it's top toppled in an earthquake....Read this update
Elephants Monkeys & Snakes
A day trip north took me to an elephant training camp, monkey training school where they learn to twist off the coconuts and let them drop from the trees. The...Read this update
March 15, 2006
Market-Going
Tired of the Night Market for tourists, this week I walked to the Warorot Day Market...a market for the local Thais. I bought delicious garlic flavored BBQ chicken for lunch...Read this update
"Letters From Thailand"
"Letters From Thailand" is a lovely novel wrtten in 1969 by "Botan", a pseudonym of the Chinese-born Thai female writer, Supa Sirisingh, and recently translated into English by Susan Fulop...Read this update
March 10, 2006
Reverent Inquiry
In spite of my petty but honest day-to-day frustration with bureaucratic silliness while traveling in most developing countries, I treasure the lives of the people who ironically seem to have...Read this update
March 08, 2006
Hope For Thailand
Thousands of people have been demonstrating for several days and nights in the streets of Bangkok calling for Prime Minister Thaksin to step down. One hundred university and business leaders...Read this update
Visa Misery
Every month my son Doug has to cross into Burma and come back into Thailand to get another 30 day stay in the country. If you are late it's...Read this update
March 07, 2006
Walkabout
Yesterday morning I walked to the Post Office around the corner and down the street and then slowly swung a wide path through the city...dawdling in used book stores, Jonesing...Read this update
March 04, 2006
The World A Playground?
A friend recently emailed me asking what it is like to have all the world as my "playground." This was my very brief answer: Well, the best thing about traveling...Read this update
Chiang Mai
Flew from Koh Samui on Bangkok Air (the only airline off the island because Bangkok Air built the airport) and then on to Chiang Mai on budget Air Asia....Read this update
Good-bye To Samui
On 1 March I said good-bye to my son Doug and his wife Luk and Ting Tong...their little Shimizu...and caught a Bangkok Air flight back to Bangkok (Bangkok Air built...Read this update
February 25, 2006
International Night
We're back on Samui and I have rented a brand new furnished one bedroom house for $12.00 a night at "Solitude Resort" on a mountainside about a mile from Doug...Read this update
February 24, 2006
Koh Pha Ngan
Doug Luk and I took a break from Samui and put the car on the ferry for the two hour trip north to the island of Koh Pha Ngan for...Read this update
February 20, 2006
Clean Clean Clean
Luk does the laundry by hand on the tiled shower floor...the water draining down a hole. She uses a brush and scrubs her heart out...twice with plain soap...and then a...Read this update
February 05, 2006
Now...Not Later
It is typical for Thais to think only about what to do now...not some time in the future. So when Doug was showing me houses to buy next year, we...Read this update
February 03, 2006
Eurotrash
I have learned a new ethnic slur..."eurotrash"...which apparently refers to the white Europeans who come to third world countries claiming to be somebody big back home but selfishly feeding off...Read this update
Visiting Doug & Luk
Arrived on Koh Samui a couple days ago on Bangkok Air to the smiling faces of Doug and Luk at the small open-air airport on Koh Samui. (Koh means...Read this update
February 01, 2006
Shower Lay Down
Doug and Luk call me every morning. Sometimes I am awake and sometimes not. This morning Luk says "Good morning mom!" "I love mom!" "I miss mom!" "One more day!"...Read this update
January 31, 2006
Cosmechanics
In front of the Rumburi Esthetique, on Sukhumvit 39, next door to my dentist, a sign offers, at Special Price, Cosmechanic, Face Lift and Anti Wrinkle, Sparkling Face & Pore...Read this update
Riaproy
Some friends that spent a year in Thailand with the Peace Corps have said there is an additional Thai value that is called "riaproy." "It means polite and well-mannered; neat....Read this update
Bangkok Street Scenes
Sidewalk Seamstress Small Family Taking A Break From Shopping...Read this update
Motorcycle Serenade
Last night I hopped a motorcycle taxi at the corner. "Where you from?" the cute young driver asked. "America," I said. "America Pie" he sang to me all the way...Read this update
January 23, 2006
Street Noodles
My favorite food in Thailand is one of the many varieties of noodle soup found on street carts. Street food is safe if you select a cart in early to...Read this update
A Light In The South
Visitors, to the south of Thailand, including foreigners, will soon have an opportunity to experience muslim life in a village in the province of Yala. A "Widower's Village" is being...Read this update
January 20, 2006
Lucky Luk!
I called my son Doug yesterday morning. He had just returned from the fish market on Koh Samui with a salad bowl of large fresh gung (shrimp) with heads still...Read this update
January 19, 2006
Teach The Children What?
On National Children's Day in Thailand, it is a tradition for the Prime Minister to deliver a positive "motto." This year the wealthy PM Thaksin who owns Thai Air and...Read this update
Bumrungrad Hospital
Nearly as diverse as New York, sitting in a Bumrungrad waiting room is a show of national and ethnic costume...many from the middle east...burkas, jalabas and Arabic head wear...males greeting...Read this update
January 12, 2006
Bangkok Business
Nearby, in ironically named Washington Square, is the Bourbon Street Bar and Restaurant where an entire wall, surrounding a dart board, is covered by business cards. Here is a sampling...Read this update
Insurgency In The South
Since January 2004, southern Thailand has been gripped by a shadowy insurgency that has killed over 1,000 people and divided local communities along religious and ethnic lines. "Bangkok," ie the...Read this update
January 08, 2006
Thai News
Six days of U.S./Thai trade talks in Chiang Mai has resulted in a stalemate with the help of 10,000 protesters...an alliance of 11 groups who are resisting trade liberalization. They...Read this update
January 07, 2006
Familiar Bangkok
Arrived in Bangkok on Jan 3rd on China Air after 17 hours and stops in Anchorage and Taiwan. There has been a cooling in Asia (northern India actually falling...Read this update
December 14, 2005
"Anyway"
The other day I was sorting through my hundreds of little pieces of paper crammed in my backpack during the last three years of travel and came across this poem...Read this update
July 17, 2005
Thainess And The West
The July 2005 edition of the slick upscale magazine for English-speaking foreigners called The Big Chilli ran an article with interviews of prominent Bangkok residents to get their views of...Read this update
July 14, 2005
Walking Out On The Ambassador
The Foreign Correspondents Club hosted another panel discussion last night with the Iranian ambassador to Thailand, H.E. Mohsen Pakaein Western observers were confounded by the surprisingly strong victory in Iran’s...Read this update
Enemies of the State?
The Foreign Correspondent's Club hosted another panel as part of it's occasional series on freedom of the press this week. Panel members were Anchalee Paireerak, operator of www.fm9225.com, one of...Read this update
"11 Minutes" Outranks Mao
On my way to my BTS Skytrain station, I stop for lunch at The Emporium, an upscale indoor shopping mall where there is a variety of restaurants on the 5th...Read this update
What Is A Farang?
Or what does "farang" mean to the Thai people. It has been said that the word derives from the French. It is also the Thai word for guava so you...Read this update
July 12, 2005
Stories Of The Street
Ten baht (25 cents) for a motorcycle taxi gets me to the American educated dentist down the soi and around the corner in little more than a minute...scared to death...Read this update
June 13, 2005
A Fine Balance
Listening to an expat radio station on the internet today, I discover that in Bangkok 2006 there will be an International Summit on Public Toilets......Read this update
May 20, 2005
A Bus To Trang
While I was on Koh Samui visiting Luk, while Doug was in Oregon, we decided to hop a bus for Trang where Luk's family lives. This is my second visit...Read this update
May 16, 2005
"Oh New Shoes Lost Me!"
After a flight from Bangkok on Bangkok Air, I have been enjoying my 26 year-old daughter-in-law on quiet Khlong Muang Beach in Krabi Province the last couple of weeks...Read this update
April 14, 2005
A Talk By Shirin Ebadi
Bob has been in the north for the last week so I joined the Foreign Correspondents Club the other day as a way of meeting other English speaking people in...Read this update
April 02, 2005
Trekking Northern Thailand
As soon as we returned to Bangkok from Bali Bob took a train to Chiang Mai for a trek in northern Thailand near Mae Son Hong. I stayed in...Read this update
April 01, 2005
Keeping Body and Soul Together
In Bangkok we got a good deal for a month in a beautiful completely furnished apartment on a dead-end street in the upscale Saladaeng area...close to the Skytrain and the...Read this update
March 11, 2005
Vibrant Bangkok
Bangkok Air From Koh Samui to Bangkok again. Not a pretty city but it's vibrant. The populace, as with much of Asia, lives outdoors…almost all 10 million of them. It...Read this update
February 03, 2005
Stamp-Out to Burma
"Stamping out" consists of leaving Krabi Thailand at a border crossing...in the case of Ranong the border is with Burma...and then "stamping" back into Thailand. To do this they...Read this update
February 01, 2005
Tsunami In Khao Lak
Before we left Krabi, Bob and Doug both had to "stamp out" of the country at Ranong (on border of Burma) so they could get another 30 days in...Read this update
January 24, 2005
Luk's Family In Trang
We rented an SUV and drove to Trang, about 150 kilometers south of Krabi, to meet Luk's immediate and extended family. We were greeted with the traditional Thai wai...Read this update
Luk's Family In Trang
We rented an SUV and drove to Trang, about 150 kilometers south of Krabi, to meet Luk's immediate and extended family. We were greeted with the traditional Thai wai...Read this update
January 23, 2005
Ao Nang Beach
Bob and I have been here in Krabi Province of Thailand with Doug and Luk for three weeks now...a welcome respite after a month in smoggy noisy Bangkok where...Read this update
December 29, 2004
Escaping The Tsunami
After a bowl of spicy Thai soup on the street outside my Bangkok hotel on December 26, 2004, I returned about 1:30pm and flipped on the satellite TV to...Read this update
December 28, 2002
Bob's Thai Village Visit
While Jana and I were playing with Chinese teenagers in Ruili in the south of Yunnan, Bob spent some time in an ethnic village in the mountains in Issan Province...Read this update
August 06, 2002
Talad Nam Lam-Paya Floating Market
Our friend, Jiraporn, who lived in the U.S. ten years and has a doctorate from Oregon State University in Fisheries and is now a lecurer in the Department of Fishery...Read this update
Expatriates
There are many expats in Bangkok who love this city and it’s people for many reasons. One day I struck up a conversation with a Brit woman sitting next to...Read this update
Thai Food!
Our favorite in all the world! In Thailand a fork in the left hand is held upside down and used to push food onto a large spoon that is held...Read this update
Skytrain Tuk Tuks Cycles & Boats
The SkyTrain is an air conditioned jam-packed elevated transportation system financed by the World Bank that can scoot you quickly from one part of the city to another but for...Read this update
August 05, 2002
Krazy Khao San Road
There is no limit to the colorful variety of activities that draw your eyes in all directions. Almost everything happens on the sidewalks or the canals and rivers...floating markets with...Read this update
August 04, 2002
Sex In The City of Angels
August 6 2002 Bangkok Thailand The Indian pilot lovingly set the Air India wheels down on the Bangkok tarmac... Being in Thailand feels good even when you know Thais will...Read this update