Thailand Stories

Thai people seem to be at the peak of their creative powers when they need to come up with another believable excuse for having a picnic. Usually, the routine trip to a waterfall suffices, but if there is additional demand for more party elements, such as luk tung music, karaoke, and a beauty pageant, a day is set aside to celebrate locally…

Title: Sassy Player (Dtaew Dte Dteen Ra-Bert) Director: Poj Arnon Starring: Peerawit Bunnag, Warapat Petchsatit, Sudarat “Tukky” Butrprom Release Date in Thailand: 2 April 2009 A girl school in town plans to found male football team, so it’s the first year that the school allows boys to enroll. But, there are only 16 boys who come for the admission and 7 of them turn out to be transsexual. Anyway, as the big final match…

Title: Khan Kluay II Director: Thaweelap Sriwuthiwong Starring: Attaporn Teemakorn, Ann Thongprasom, Montri Janeaksorn Official website: www.kantana.com/khankluay/th/main.html Release Date in Thailand: 26 March 2009 Khan Kluay II is set after the victory of Ayutthaya against the invasion of the powerful Burmese Empire when Khan Kluay is appointed as King Naresuan’s royal elephant and services the king in many battles. But it isn’t…

I find it very satisfying to be able to give back to my local community. I teach English to Thai students in a private school in Samut Prakan. But, these kids mainly come from rich families and they are used to seeing foreign teachers. What I sometimes find more rewarding is to …

Title: Meat Grinder (Cheuat Gon Chim) Director: Tiwa Moeithaisong Starring: Mai Charoenpura, Rattanaballang Tohsawat, Duangta Tungkamanee Release Date in Thailand: 19 March 2009 MEAT GRINDER takes you to taste the bizarre horror of traditional noodle recipe cooked by Boot, a woman who owns a noodle stall, a unique noodle stall. Boot has been living with tension and stress for all of her life, she works hard for …

Title: Miss You Again (A-Neung Kit Teung Bpen Yaang Ying) Director: Bundit Rittakol Starring: Thanachat Tulayachat, Ratchawin Wongviriya, Klaokaew Sinteppadon Official website: www.anueng.com Release Date in Thailand: 12 March 2009 The film centers to a high school that is going to be taken over by foreign investor, who plans to…

I enjoy getting lost. Taking a map, my camera, some water, and follow some deserted mountain road, looking down on valleys, looking over mountain ranges. This is how I found the beautiful little village of Baan Namkhong just a few weeks ago at the end of a winding road, in …

Title: Power Kids (Haa Hua Jai Hero) Director: Krissanapong Rachata Starring: Johnny Nguyen, Nanthawut Boonrubsub, Sasisa Jindamanee Official website: www.powerkidsmovie.com Release Date in Thailand: 5 March 2009 Power Kids circles around 5 kids; Wut, Kat, Pong, Woon and Jib, who grow up in a martial art school. Their ordinary life twists when they fight a rowdy gang and it causes…

How come, with the age of the Internet with all that info available on places to go in Thailand, that us folk, when choosing a holiday destination, always select the same old places? And especially, when it’s a tropical beach we are after. So, if you’re bored of well-trodden tourist haunts and their endless array of banana boats and bar beers, then why not…

One of the best agro-tourism projects in Thailand is undoubtedly Farm Chokchai in Nakhon Ratchasima Province. In fact it has won many awards. Farm Chokchai is situated on the Friendship Highway in cowboy country and is only 159 km from Bangkok. You can either come here as a day trip from Bangkok or as a stopover on your…

(The following is a rough/brief translation of the leading article in the Thai Raj newspaper, 31 Jan) (Example edited pic on www.hi5.com) No pimps, no mamasangs – Thai university students, office women and highschool girls sell their bodies directly on the Internet on two of Thailand’s most popular websites www.mthai….

An expression often used during the colonial period was “going native”. It referred to the people who forgot the ways of their home country and started to behave like the natives. It was meant as a derogatory term as if Western educated people were of a higher class and standing. To “go native” meant to behave like someone from your host country. For example, accept the…

If you are staying in Krabi town or Ao Nang beach, the many travel agencies around offer about ten different daytrips, ranging from elephant riding at Khao Phanom Benja National Park to kayaking in the mangroves to snorkelling on Ko Bida. However, you can do most of these daytrips on your own if you are brave enough to ride a rented motorcycle – and save about…

Krabi is one of my favourite provinces in Thailand, and it is gradually becoming a major tourist destination for people who find Phuket a little bit too expensive and too westernised. I have been several times over the past years, and in the next couple of weeks I would like to show you a few …

The elephant is Thailand’s national animal: its image appeared on the old flag of Siam. Nowadays, elephants are endangered, with their numbers dwindling constantly and less than 1000 elephants living in the wild. A couple of thousand more elephants are domesticated and live on farms such as the Mae Sa Elephant Camp near Chiang Mai. There is no better place to see these magnificent animals then in their natural…

(Typical dancers down some local club in Britain) I guess most of yous didn’t even realized that I’d been away from the blogging scene for a while, I didn’t post anything since that last blog on misunderstanding lovely Thai women, a massive six weeks ago. Well, in all that time I’ve been …

Most travellers are probably familiar with the warning appearing over and over again in guidebooks and travel websites that it is not advisable and not safe to take tourist buses in Thailand. Certainly it is always a very easy option to walk into the first travel agency on Khao San road and buy a ticket for the 6 p.m…

The thing is, I actually love Songkran. The way it once was (I imagine), the way it should be. I love playing Songkran water fights with my students in the school yard, getting drenched all the same, but without ice cubes, in gently warm tap water. No rashes the next day, no two days of sneezing. We share buckets…

(The following blog/article was published in The Nation newspaper on January 19. Here below, however, is the originally un-edited submission) (Leading Thai Language Newspaper Headlines – Just After Children’s Day – “Students Chained To Tree By Teacher”) Let’s first have a look at last week’s government motto for Children’s Day ‘To be united, well-disciplined, virtuous and always in search of knowledge’. Now, compare that to a…

(The following blog is a brief translation of an article published today in the ‘Scoop Page’ section of the Thai language Daily News newspaper.) “I know it’s risky but i like it” Last week, a whole load of different folk from all walks of life got together for a seminar on technology and communications and ‘Youth & Problems’. They agreed that regardless…