Women Learning Thai… and some men too ;-)

The Loi Krathong song in Thai… My Thai teacher just loves to sing. And sometimes, right there in the middle of a lesson, she will stand up and belt out a Thai song. Often, she will drag me up too. Then, swinging her arms like a conductor, we prance around my sofa. In unison. Singing [...]

Anthony Bourdain makes it to YouTube… Exactly one week ago I wrote the post, Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations: Thai Episode, lamenting that his cooking show wasn’t going to be viewed on available channels in Thailand. Available to me anyway. But here we are already… on YouTube… Enjoy…

Anthony Bourdain has no reservations… Yesterday, America’s Travel Channel kindly contacted me about Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode shot here in Thailand. The culture of Thailand incorporates a great deal of influence from India, China, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia, and Thai cuisine blends five fundamental flavors: sweet, spicy, sour, bitter and salty. [...]

All things Thai culture… Last month I posted about Khun Krajog’s Brush Up You Thai series on The Nation Weblog. Well, Khun Krajog also blogs about Thai culture under the heading Of Things Thai. His two latests posts deal with Thailand’s National Mother’s Day: National Mother Day and August 12 Mother Day Special: A tribute [...]

The I Love Thailand website launches… Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva recently launched a website to unite the Thai people: ilovethailand.org. The site is not only in Thai, so if your Thai is not up to it but your English is, you should find something of interest. The Lands of Thailand video… Included in the video [...]

Look, there’s a temple, and another, and oh, there’s more… First thing on Thursday I left a rainy Bangkok to head south for a rainy Samut Songkhram Province, known for its heavy concentration of Thai temples. Taking a trip to the provinces so soon after my return from an intense two-week off-station stint was actually [...]

The top 100 Thailand blogs: accept no imitation… Matt Crook, formerly of Thailand and now of East Timor, is the writer/blogger for The Lost Boy. One lost boy wandering aimlessly, fighting the tanks, looking at the ladyboys, running round the city. This is a 24-year-old expat’s take of life in the City of Angels, with [...]

Do language phrase books ever talk our talk?… To set the record straight, phrase books and I have never talked the same language. Sure, they are a window into learning a foreign language, but for me it has been a meager view. But no matter. In the hopes of changing my opinion, I escaped to [...]

Booking a cultural Christmas… With exactly one week to go before Xmas, there is just enough time to shop for the Thai language learner in your life. And while these books are not about learning Thai, they are about Thailand. Equally important. About the list… I asked friends and forums for their favourite books on [...]

I haven’t visited every corner of Thailand, but I’ve seen a fair bit. By rental cars, loaners, water taxis and taxis charging by the day, I’ve spread into Thailand. For years, after acquiring a dislike for Bangkok during the haze of the 2006, I’d unload at the airport and keep on going to Changmai. Or [...]