Jul 4, 2010

I’m a Farang. If you’ve got European ancestry, you are too. Although the word exists in many linguistic forms throughout the Siam and Khmer Empires and beyond, this Thai version is the most well known. Its widespread use lends credence to the theory it entered the region long ago as a corruption of the Persian word for “foreigner”, though

Jun 19, 2010

After trekking through a rain forest, riding an elephant and sunning myself on a different beach daily, I imagined I knew what paradise looked like. That was until our ferry from Phuket came around a limestone outcropping in the Indian Ocean and I first sighted Phi Phi Island. Only the motors of long-tail boats in Tonsai Bay could be heard. With the sun

“Same Same, but Different,” so goes the saying on two-thirds of the T-Shirts for sale in Bangkok. After a long flight over the gerrymandered International Date Line, my plane approached Bangkok at one in the morning (+1). Although I was prepared for the heat and humidity I’d read about, leaving the air-conditioned comfort of the terminal my

The Sarojin had been completed and the new resort’s owners sent their employees home before the big grand opening. Then the Tsunami came, Khao Lak, in Thailand, lost thousands of lives, and the Sarojin destroyed. Fortunately, the owners and employees stuck together and rebuilt the Sarojin, themselves. Maids became carpenters and cooks became cement mixers.

At this year’s Thailand Travel Mart in Bangkok, I had the chance to rumble with the pros, jockeying for position, trying to get the best shots of the entertainment provided to tour operators from around the world. In this video, it’s 25 Thai drummers and a lone xylophonist — only in Thailand! Of course, I have loads to say about Thailand,

Having previously lived in China, I had to know what Bangkok’s Chinatown was like. I took the skytrain to Saphan Taksin (the last stop on the Silom line) and then rode the Chao Phraya River Express north to Tha Ratchawong where I could walk into Chinatown. I walked straight off the ferry dock, following the people and the pungent aromas into the heart of the