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You’ve Probably Bought Fake CDs But Have You Ever Eaten Counterfeit Food?

I’ll be the first to admit that in the past, from time to time, I have bought counterfeit things. You know, in moments of extreme weakness. Taken a shortcut to save a few bucks. Usually it was for things that were pretty low profile – DVDs (back when people still bought those), shoes, sunglasses, and the like. But as I got older, I started to appreciate that, generally, you get what you pay for. When it’s a DVD it’s not a huge deal, but when you start to realize that the world of counterfeits extends to more serious […]

Greg2016-11-20T14:40:53+00:00Bangkok, Culture, Food, Health, Thailand|2 Comments

Welcome to the new Greg to Differ

Hey! If you’re reading this, you’re on the brand new design of my lil’ website. I put no small amount of work into it, so I hope you like it. It might not seem like much, but us bloggers can get quite proud and obsessed with our websites. I don’t think it’s misguided effort, either, especially in the 21st century. If you have Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or any type of online presence, you are, essentially, a brand, and brands need to be taken care of. […]

Greg2016-11-20T14:55:59+00:00Bangkok, Technology|0 Comments

The One Constant About Having Kids in Thailand

If you haven’t picked up on it during previous posts, I’m the proud father of a beautiful, hilarious, mischievous, lovely little boy who just turned 1. I’ve written pages and pages privately about the experience thus far, but very little publicly. I wanted to reflect on one element of being a parent in Thailand that has never stopped making me laugh and/or frown in equal measure, and that is how Thais – most of the time females – react to kids. […]

Greg2016-11-20T14:55:05+00:00Asia, Bangkok, Culture, Kids, Thailand|13 Comments

Bangkok’s Malls Lack Slogans, So I Made Some

There’s a very tired joke I like to make whenever some friends and I are oot and aboot in Bangkok. If we see a construction site, I always say “Maybe it will be a museum or library!” and everyone laughs and I get high fives, because 99% of the time it will either be a mall or a condo. Or both. Some love it, some hate it, but you can’t deny that Bangkok’s efforts to overtake Singapore as Asia’s shopping hub are ambitious and persistent. […]

Greg2018-01-02T09:25:10+00:00Bangkok, Culture, Shopping|0 Comments

It’s surprisingly hard to spend a huge housing allowance in Bangkok

Finding a really sweet pad in Bangkok is a rite of passage for anyone new to the city, as well as a draining and sometimes mystifying quest for old hands. Where to look? How to look? By local standards, what’s considered big or small, a good deal or a bad deal? What should you look out for? How “native” do you want to go? We covered this a few years back in an episode of Bangkok Podcast, but it remains one of the biggest issues facing expats here today. But recently a friend emailed me some interesting problems […]

Greg2016-11-20T14:59:24+00:00Bangkok, Culture, Thailand|0 Comments

Asian fortune tellers – three visits, three different futures

Fortune telling – possibly an even older profession than the Oldest Profession – is huge in Asia. (The Oldest Profession is also huge in Asia, but that’s another blog post). In western cultures, fortune telling is relegated to circus side-shows and party tricks, a goofy remnant of a long-forgotten superstition. But if you read the daily headlines in Asia you’ll see that everyone from the girl selling coffee on the street corner to the leaders of most countries rarely make a major decision without consulting their favorite seer. […]

Greg2016-11-20T14:59:06+00:00Asia, Bangkok, Culture, Thailand|6 Comments

Bangkok Then & Now – Old Photos vs. New Ones

Bangkok’s history is fascinating. Its spaghetti-like maze of streets and alleys that have been worked and reworked since before the city was founded in 1782, and peeling back the layers of 230+ years of history reveals some incredibly interesting stuff.

One of the best ways to appreciate this is with a book called Bangkok Then & Now by Steve Van Beek, the 4th edition of which was just released. Steve is an old Bangkok hand and in his forty-plus years in Bangkok has amassed an impressive collection of photos and information on the capital throughout the years. (Read this post where […]

Greg2021-09-09T04:47:30+00:00Bangkok, History, Print Media|19 Comments

Shaking up my Commute – Riding a Bike to Work in Bangkok

Update 2018: This whole experiment lasted about six months. It was fine while it lasted, but let’s be honest – it’s just a numbers game. As I’ve said before, riding a bike in Bangkok isn’t deadly, but it isn’t safe, and the more often you ride, the higher the chances are of something happening. With a toddler at home and a nervous wife, I decided to just submit to The Man and take the BTS to work.

If you’ve read my site before you probably know that I ride my bike a lot in and around Bangkok […]

Greg2018-06-27T05:24:49+00:00Bangkok, Biking, Health, Transport|14 Comments

Taste-Testing Those Weird Little Health Drinks in Thai 7-11s

Anyone who has spent any time in a Thai 7-11 has probably seen those little bottles of…drink…stuff. Everything from bird’s nests to collagen to essence of things. They’re peddled on television, usually by alarmingly young women wearing tight clothes who seem to be having just a wonnnnnnderful time hanging out and laughing together. Anyway, every time I walk by there seems to be another type of colorful little box, so I decided to find out what the hell they were. Also, it’s a long weekend and I have a new baby, so I’m stuck at home. Don’t let it […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:43+00:00Bangkok, Food, Fun Stuff, Thailand|14 Comments

Tourists vs Locals: Mapping Where People Tweet in Bangkok

If you’ve read some of my previous posts you may have noticed that I’m fascinated by maps and the data that’s used to make them. I even went to so far as to use a bike and a GPS tracker to write my name across all of downtown Bangkok. But recently I stumbled on an amazing project by artist Eric Fischer that used maps and data in such a unique way that I just had to dive in and explore to see what I could learn about Bangkok. […]

Greg2016-11-21T04:18:47+00:00Bangkok, Technology|0 Comments