Thailand
Thailand’s Computer Paradise
Last time I was in Canada, I was - somewhat futilely, I admit - searching for those little keychain license plates with names on them, but with Thai names like Tin, Pik, Nok and so forth. It’s no surprise that I couldn’t find any. The clerk asked me what I was looking for [...]
Getting a Thai Driver’s License the Hard Way - Taking the Test
After living here for over 7 years now, I’m familiar enough with the rules and nuances of Bangkok traffic to know that I never, ever want to drive in it. It’s not so much that it’s bad - traffic in India or Vietnam makes Bangkok traffic look like a driver’s ed training course - but [...]
Thailand’s Version of Workplace Safety
One of the first things many visitors notice about Thailand is that all the construction workers - putting in ten hour days in 38 degree heat - wear long-sleeve shirts, gloves, full-face masks and wide brimmed hats. It often confuses the pasty tourist, already dripping with sweat after strolling a few hundred feet out of [...]
An Olympic Scrap at the FCC
That a country like China can claim the international prestige of hosting the Olympics is pretty ridiculous. I won’t bother getting into their flagrant human rights abuses, censorship borne of a fear of knowledge and unmitigated arrogance on the world stage; that would be redundant. The question sometimes comes up as to whether someone with [...]
Censorship in Thai Cinemas
Despite Thailand’s leaders promoting the country as a democracy, it’s still got quite a way to go until it truly is what they claim. Nowhere is this more evident than when you go to see a movie, where scenes deemed ‘harmful to Thai society’ are routinely blurred, pixelated, or just plain excised. In [...]
Putting The ‘Gig’ In ‘Adultery’
Ahhh, the ambiguities of Thailand. I think I’ve included this phrase before in my blog, but my friend John summed it up quite nicely - “there are no rules in Thailand until there are rules. Then they’re unbreakable.” Finding a single reason for any problem is often impossible, in much the same [...]
Brain Schools in Thailand
There was an article today in the Bangkok Post titled Brain Schools Gain Popularity, which discussed the glut of new schools popping up in Bangkok that purport to give youngsters a leg up in their cerebral analytical skills. It sounds a bit like quackery, but they do have a point. I love Thailand [...]
Badass Bangkok Biking
Bangkok’s not usually the type of city one thinks about when you hear ‘city biking’, but over the past few years my friends and I have braved the narrow streets, unpredictable traffic and stifling heat to map ourselves out a nice collection of routes. Some of them take us down Bangkok’s main drags, where we [...]
Fortune Telling
So it’s Chinese New Year this week, which for me means a lot of interesting crap, especially since I live in Chinatown. Some extra hustle and bustle in my future, and lots of food, red lanterns and Mandarin being screamed in my ear as I walk around the neighbourhood. This of course all [...]
Of Rice and Men
My friend John recited something very funny to me today, a quote from around the 15th century from a Thai person describing the then-strange sight of white European explorers. We laughed a lot because, despite being written about half a millennium ago, it’s still an amazingly succinct and strangely accurate description. I imagine [...]
